


The Queen of Hearts

by BadassBurgess



Category: Professional Wrestling, World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-02
Updated: 2020-04-02
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:07:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 30
Words: 56,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23450680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BadassBurgess/pseuds/BadassBurgess
Summary: A wrestler and a poker player. And seemingly unlikely romance begins backstage at Smackdown. (Roman/Mandy)
Kudos: 5





	1. Chapter 1

It all started with a simple little aside from Vince Mahon.

"Roman, we've got a special guest coming tonight," WWE's chairman said. As much as anything else, it was a way of making a little bit of conversation after a meeting they'd had to discuss a segment for that night's Smackdown episode.

Roman Reigns found nothing out of the ordinary in what he had been told. WWE often had famous people as guests at their events. Anyone from actors, to sports stars, to military heroes could be invited. The guests would be given a backstage tour, meet some of the wrestlers, then sit ringside for the show. WWE would of course make sure to get them on-screen at some point to show them off to the audience. Occasionally, guests were even allowed to have a small spot in a match.

"Who's coming?" Roman asked, expecting some actor or actress from a show that he had no interest in watching.

"Mandy Rose," Vince said. "She's..."

"I know who she is," Roman said. Mandy Rose was the woman who had won the prestigious World Series of Poker Main Event earlier in the year, becoming the first woman ever to do so, and winning more than ten million dollars in the process. The win had made Mandy a star overnight. Roman had seen her on chat shows and in commercials over the past few months. He supposed it helped that she was so hot that it bordered on the ridiculous. She would certainly stand out in a room full of nerdy, mostly male poker players, he thought. And now she was going to be a guest of WWE for the night.

"You do? That's good," Vince replied. "Maybe I can get you to show her around then? I was going to have one of the women to do it."

"No, I'll do it. I'll be happy to," Roman said. As a hot blooded, single man, there were worse ways to kill some time before a show than with someone like Mandy.

"Then it's agreed. I'll send someone to find you when she gets here."

"Alright, see you later," Roman said. He left Vince's office and went back to the locker room. By the time he got there, Mandy Rose was still on his mind. He had actually watched some of the TV coverage of the World Series of Poker main event, thanks to his interest in the game and the many, many hours of travel and airport hours that his job left him to find entertainment in. He could remember pulling for Mandy, partly because she was a hot chick, but also partly because she had seemed to him like she was a very good player. One hand in particular stood out in his memory. It was the one that had become famous after the event as the one that had set Mandy on the road to victory.

Sitting down in front of his locker, Roman put in his earbuds and took his phone out of his pocket. He wanted to watch the hand again. Typing Mandy's name into YouTube brought the hand in question up as the first item in the search results. 'Mandy Rose wins a monster pot' was the title of the video. Roman tapped on it.

The video started with a shot of Mandy's cards as she checked them. The first card was the queen of spades. The second was the queen of clubs. She made a bet.

Several players folded, until the action got around to a guy named Cole, who the last one in the hand apart from Mandy. He had the second largest stack of chips at the final table, where five people remained. Mandy was in third place, not far behind him. Cole turned up the corners of both of his cards simultaneously. He had the king of spades and the king of diamonds.

"I'm all in," Cole announced.

"I call," Mandy said immediately, flipping over her pair of queens.

The crowd watching live in the arena cheered in excitement. Just like that a colossal hand was taking place.

"Yes!" Cole said, clenching a fist. With his other hand, he turned over his pair of kings. He was poised to bust Mandy and take an almost unassailable chip lead.

Across the table, Mandy got up, putting her hands on her head in anguish at what she had just done. She was now staring down the barrel of elimination.

Sections of the arena had been reserved for friends and family of each of the nine final table players' friends a families. Mandy went over to her section, shaking her head.

"Don't worry, there's a queen coming," a dark haired older woman said, possibly Mandy's mom, Roman suspected.

"You think so?" Mandy asked doubtfully. She had to get back to the table, for the dealer was about to put down the first three community cards, known as the flop.

"Come on! Queen!" Mandy shouted, trying to be upbeat about it. All of the players wore microphones for the benefit of the TV audience.

"Good luck," Cole said from the other side of the table, also standing up. Roman was positive the guy didn't mean it, he was just being nice to the pretty lady. It made him wonder how much of an advantage Mandy's looks were for her at a poker table.

"Queen!" Mandy called again as the female dealer peeled off the three cards.

The TV coverage got an overhead shot as the cards were put down on the table. As the dealer slid her hand across to spread them out and reveal them, the first one was the queen of hearts. The other two cards were both sixes.

A literal roar of delight came from Mandy, and from her section as she ran over to celebrate with them. Roman shook his head slightly, smiling. He couldn't begin to imagine what that moment must have felt like for her. Maybe something like winning the Wrestlemania main event, if it relied on luck and paid out ten million dollars.

But the hand wasn't over. Cole, understandably gutted by what had just happened, could still win if either of the two remaining cards were a king. His section of the crowd started chanting for a king.

The dealer put down the next card. It was a ten. Mandy's section cheered again, as she nervously watched on.

"Come on," Cole said quietly. There was one card to go in the hand, and only two cards left in the deck that could save him. His odds were terrible, and he knew it.

The dealer put down the final card. It was a three.

Mandy clenched her fist and cheered loudly, before turning to face her friends and family. She spread out her arms in what would end up being the iconic moment of that year's main event. "This is the greatest game in the world!" she shouted.

Roman scrolled down to see the comments on the video. The top one was: 'Now I know why people call her the queen of hearts.'

The next one was something perverted, which presumably had a lot of likes from sweaty, sexless teenagers.

The third most popular comment was: 'This bitch calls off all her chips with a pair of queens, gets lucky, and everyone acts like she's a great player. Yeah, right.'

It seemed like there were people who weren't fans of Mandy Rose. Roman wondered what their chances were of lasting seven days in a poker tournament, beating eight thousand other players and winning ten million dollars.

Now that he had watched the hand again, Roman was happy that he had it fresh in his mind as something to make conversation about when Mandy arrived.

* * *

The offer of an all expenses paid trip to Friday Night Smackdown had been an easy one to accept for Mandy Rose. She had been a WWE fan since childhood, and still tried to keep up to date with their content as much as possible. Of the two main roster brands, Smackdown was her favourite, which made it even better that it was the one she had been invited to.

WWE's hospitality had included a car to pick Mandy up from the airport. Over the past few months, she had found herself experiencing a lot of that kind of treatment. Even so, she wasn't yet really getting used to it. Winning the World Series of Poker Main Event had changed her life completely. Before the win, which had comes as a surprise to Mandy as much as it had to anyone else, she had been an ordinary woman who made her money playing online poker most days of the week and live streaming to an audience of maybe two thousand people on a good day.

Now, by stark contrast, she had been able to pay off her parents' mortgage, buy herself a new house, and still be in a position to never have to worry about money for the rest of her life unless she was incredibly stupid. In addition to the ten million dollars she had won, Mandy was now making additional money from a big sponsorship by the online poker company PokerStars, and from a couple of other companies who had paid her to appear in television advertisements.

The latest advertisement of sorts was the trip to Smackdown. Vince McMahon wasn't doing this out of the goodness of his heart, of course. The reason he wanted her there at ringside was so he could stick a camera in her face for a few moments and basically go, 'Hey, look who likes our show!' Mandy was okay with that. After all, she did like the show.

A backstage tour had been promised, too. Arguably, Mandy was looking forward to that as much as the show itself. "I might get to meet Roman Reigns, or Baron Corbin," she had enthused to her poker-playing friend Clementine, who also happened to watch WWE.

"Or Otis," Clementine had said, laughing.

"Don't laugh at the fat guy, I'm sure he's lovely," Mandy had said, also laughing despite what she had just told Clem off for.

In truth, while Mandy would have liked to get the guided tour from one of the stupidly hot guys, she expected Vince to get one of the women do it. Maybe Bayley or Alexa Bliss, she thought.

It wasn't long before she arrived at the arena, where she was met by a backstage staff member, who escorted her to Vince McMahon's office.

"Mandy, thank you for coming," McMahon said, smiling broadly as they shook hands.

"No, thank you for having me," Mandy said, smiling back at him. "I've always wanted to come to a WWE show live, but somehow I never have. This is going to be a lot of fun."

"We've got a ringside seat waiting for you, and if it's okay with you, we'd like to give you a little something to do in one of the matches tonight."

"That sounds awesome!" Mandy exclaimed. "What will I be doing?"

"We're going to have Sami Zayn in the ring cutting a promo. His attention will end up on you, and he will talk you down a bit, getting out of the ring to talk smack to your face. You'll slap him, and he'll turn around. At that point, Elias will have appeared and he will smash a guitar over Sami's head."

"That'll be great," Mandy said, laughing at the image his description had conjured up in her mind.

A knock came on the office door. "Come in!" Vince called.

The door opened, and Roman Reigns walked in. Mandy's breath caught in her throat. He was even more handsome in person, and looked bigger too. She felt herself swooning.

"Roman, meet Mandy Rose," Vince said. "Mandy, Roman Reigns."

"Hi, Mandy. It's very nice to meet you," Roman said.

"It's nice to meet you too, Roman."

They shook hands and looked into each other's eyes. It was love at first sight.


	2. Chapter 2

The undeniable attraction between Roman and Mandy the moment they set eyes on each other had taken his breath away. He had never experienced anything like it before in his life. Love at first sight, he now suspected, was actually a thing. She was the most stunningly beautiful woman he had ever seen, even wearing a maroon hoodie with the PokerStars logo on it, and a pair of jeans. She also had an infectious laugh, which she made use of often, he had discovered on their tour around the backstage areas. A woman who found his crap jokes amusing, what more could he ask for?

"Ugh, she's so glamorous," Mandy said.

Up ahead along the hallway, they could see Alexa Bliss, who was dressed in a gorgeous silver dress ahead of a Moment of Bliss segment on Smackdown. She was busy chatting to Sami Zayn.

"You're not so bad yourself," Roman said, deciding to take a chance on a riskier joke.

Mandy laughed loudly as they continued walking, taking no offense at all. "Shut up for God's sake. What you're not going to do right now is mock my appearance. FYI, I'm dressed like this because of the sponsorship deal I signed with PokerStars. Any time I know I'm going to be on TV or a stream, I have to wear something with their logo on it. What's your excuse?"

"Wow!" Roman exclaimed, laughing at her comeback. He spread his arms, looking down at his own appearance. "What's wrong with what I'm wearing?"

"Nothing, if you're decorating a room or doing yard work."

"Finish him!" Roman said in his best Mortal Kombat impression, making Mandy laugh again. "I'm wearing a t-shirt and sweatpants."

"I know," she said dryly. "I like a smartly dressed man."

"Noted," Roman said, filing the information away in his head for future reference, just in case. They had reached the entrance to Gorilla, giving him a chance to get the tour back on track. "This is Gorilla. It's where the show is produced, and where we assemble before we go out into the arena."

"I've been looking forward to this," Mandy said. "Will we be able to go out into the arena?"

"We will. It'll be all set up and ready to go by now."

"This is all so exciting," Mandy enthused. "Yours must be such an awesome job to have. I'd love to be able to wrestle."

"Yeah? Well I'd love to be good at poker," Roman said.

"You play?" she asked, stopping by the curtain that led into Gorilla.

"I do, badly. I watch the Main Event every year. I caught quite a bit of the final table coverage. Honestly? I was pulling for you?"

"Oh? Why?" Mandy asked innocently.

Damn, Roman thought, realising that he had put himself in an awkward spot by not thinking about what he was saying. To hell with it, he decided. "Because I thought you were very good, and you were the only hot chick at the table."

"I see," she said slowly, grinning at his honesty.

"That hand with the queens against kings was wild," he said, pushing past the awkwardness that he had caused for himself. She now knew that he found her attractive, although after the initial moment of connection they'd had, he felt like it wasn't really news. Sparks had flown in that moment, and they both knew it.

"I never should have snap called his all-in," Mandy admitted. "But it paid off, and here I am, The Queen of Hearts."

"Insert joke here," Roman said, making her laugh again.

"You're the worst, you know that?" Mandy said, shaking her head. "Come on, show me Gorilla before I change my mind."

"As if you would," Roman said dryly. He walked through the curtain and held it open for her. Over at the production desks, a couple of backstage crew members were going through some checks on the equipment. "That's where Vince and Hunter sit," he said.

"What about whoever directs the show? Is that in one those trucks you see out back sometimes?"

"Yes, there's a TV truck. I can take you out there as well if you like?"

"I'd like to see as much as I can," Mandy said in an upbeat manner.

"No problem. We'd better leave these guys to it. Let's go into the arena. This way."

"This is where I should have music playing and a crowd cheering," Mandy said as she followed Roman through the curtain onto the stage.

"Or booing," he countered.

Mandy laughed. "What are you trying to say?"

"Nothing," he replied, also laughing.

She walked over to centre stage, at the top of the ramp, and posed with one arm in the air, her other hand touching it.

Roman had no idea what the pose was supposed to be, but it didn't really matter. She was enjoying herself.

"It must be crazy to stand here when the arena is full of people," Mandy said, looking around at the empty seats.

"You get used to it to some extent, but yes, it is a unique feeling. And then there's Wrestlemania, which is something else entirely."

"Oh my god, I bet it is," she breathed. "You know, I'd love to go to Wrestlemania. In fact, this year I think I will. Do you know what your match is going to be there yet? We're past the Royal Rumble."

"I do know, but I can't say," Roman said.

"Of course," she acknowledged. "Can we go down to the ring?"

"We can," he nodded. There was no one down there at the moment, as everything was prepared for the night's warm up matches.

They walked down the ramp together. When they reached ringside, Roman pointed to the front row of seats to their right. "You'll be over there somewhere later."

"How do you know that?" Mandy asked.

"That's where they always put the VIPs."

"Is that what I am? A VIP?" Mandy asked innocently, looking up at Roman.

"Yep," he said gruffly, fighting an urge to kiss her.

"Important enough to get your number?"

"Definitely," Roman said.

* * *

Being ringside for Smackdown was as brilliant as Mandy had had expected it to be. She was lucky enough to be in the position of being famous enough to get invites for things like this, but not famous enough to be recognised by many people in everyday life. Her luck had held out with the wrestling fans sitting around her. No one had shown any indication that they might know who she was before the time came for her little appearance on camera.

While Smackdown was on a commercial break, a cameraman got ready in front of Mandy, which let her know that she would soon be on-screen. The setup was actually quite clever in that by looking at the camera she could also see the big screen in the background, where she would see herself when she was on.

Moments later, she saw herself appear on the screen, with one of the Smackdown style name displays: 'Mandy Rose. World Series of Poker Main Event Winner.' She gave the audience a big smile and a wave, noting a rather male quality to the few cheers in the arena. She imagined the commentators saying a few nice words about her. It was a fun moment, but there was better to come later.

* * *

Baron Corbin came to the ring full of anger and humiliation after losing a match to a no name local talent the previous week, thanks to interference from Elias. He started his promo by berating Elias for his actions. A 'you got beat' chant wasn't likely to improve his mood.

"You all think it's funny, huh?" Corbin yelled at the crowd as he paced around the ring. He pointed to a couple in the front row on the opposite side of the ring to Mandy. They looked to her like they were in their thirties. "You two, I can you laughing!" he shouted. "You know what I think is funny? I can't tell if that's your girlfriend or your mom."

Some of the crowd booed, while others laughed at Corbin's insult. He moved over to the back side of the ring and pointed at an older woman. "You! Don't laugh so hard, grandma, your teeth might fall out."

There was more booing and laughter. Mandy made sure to laugh too, knowing that she was about to be the next person selected for an insult.

"Oh, look who it is," Corbin said in the ring, glaring directly at Mandy. "It's Mandy Rose, the master poker player, The Queen of Hearts. You having a laugh over there, Mandy?" he asked as he got out of the ring.

Noticing that there was a camera on her, Mandy tried her best to look unsure what to do now that she was about to be confronted.

"I'll tell you what I think is funny: Your face," Corbin said once he was standing in front of Mandy, looming over her. "Please don't tell me you paid that plastic surgeon?"

There might have been boos in that moment if Elias hadn't just come running down the entrance ramp with his guitar.

Backstage before the show, Corbin had told Mandy what he wanted to say, and after she had agreed to it, he had asked her to slap him as hard as she could. She guessed he possibly feared her contribution looking lame. But as a wrestling fan all her life, there was no chance of that happening. She blasted him so hard with her right hand that her palm was left stinging. Hopefully it had sounded good for the audience, she thought.

As the crowd cheered the slap, Corbin turned around, holding his cheek to sell the pain. He opened himself up perfectly for the guitar shot from Elias. With a loud crash, the wooden instrument exploded over the king's head, knocking him out and sending bits of wood flying everywhere.

Having thoroughly enjoyed it, Mandy was sad that her one and only appearance in WWE was at an end.

A couple of minutes later, after referees had made a show of helping Corbin to the back, the show cut to a backstage segment. Mandy used the opportunity to check her phone. There was a message from Clementine, and one from Roman. That was a very nice surprise. She opened his message first.

_Roman Reigns: You're a natural. That was amazing._

Mandy giggled, thinking that he was overdoing it a bit. Nonetheless, she decided to play along with her reply.

_Amazing enough to celebrate with a drink later? I'm staying at the Sheraton by the river._

A reply came back almost immediately.

_Roman Reigns: How could I say no to an offer like that?_

"How indeed?" Mandy said quietly, smiling to herself.


	3. Chapter 3

Keeping in mind what he had learned earlier in the night, Roman had dressed smartly in a grey shirt and black pants before taking an Uber over to the Sheraton hotel where Mandy was staying. They had arranged to have a drink in the hotel's bar. He had seen it as a simple thing, involving no great commitment or effort from either of them – perfect for a first drink that wasn't even a date.

And so it had proven to be. One drink had turned into three, as they sat in a booth and got to know each other better, beginning with Mandy talking about her childhood. Roman had then told her about how he had helped his dad and brothers to run the family's wrestling academy as he grew up, before making a serious and successful attempt to get into the business himself.

"Another glass?" Roman asked, noticing that Mandy had finished her wine.

"One more," she said, playfully making it sound like he was twisting her arm.

"One more," Roman agreed. As someone who rarely drank, four beers was plenty for him. He went up to the bar, bought the round of drinks, and carried them back to the booth.

"Thank you," Mandy smiled.

It was such a perfect, beautiful smile that it spoke to the hot blooded side of Roman. The low cut red top that matched her lipstick and showed plenty of cleavage certainly spoke to it as well. If she wasn't a poker player, she could have made good money as a model. But what had led her to become a professional poker player?

"How did you end up where you are today?" he asked as he sat back down, sipping from his final beer of the night. "I can't imagine you told anyone in school that you wanted to play poker for a living?"

"I didn't even know how to play by the time I left school," she smiled. "No, I wanted to work in my dad's sandwich shop. And that's what I did once I graduated. I worked there for years, even after I started streaming poker. While I was growing my channel, I was working during the day and streaming at night. I remember the first time I got a hundred viewers on a stream like it was yesterday."

Roman listened keenly, genuinely interested in a career that was so different to his own. "Before last year's World Series, how many people showed up to your streams?"

"Sunday was always the big day. I would stream between eight and ten hours, and I'd get between seven and eight thousand people come out. With the subscriptions and donations that came in, I would make a decent bit of money outside of the bankroll I use on PokerStars."

"And what about since your win? I assume a lot more people show up."

Mandy shook her head in bewilderment before taking a hit from her wine glass. "Yeah, it's blown up big time. Every time I'm streaming now I'm on Twitch's front page and there are tens of thousands of people watching. The ironic thing is I haven't won much online since the Main Event. That's cards, though. You have to take the rough with the smooth."

If the smooth is ten million dollars, I'd take a bit of rough for sure, Roman thought.

"Like, I appreciate all those people showing up to watch me," she continued. "It's just that it was more intimate when there were less people. I knew a lot of the regulars in my chat. Now it's often a wall of text flying by that I can't even read."

"I'm going to have to check out one of these streams," Roman said.

"Really? If you're serious and you do it, how will I know you're in the chat?"

Roman thought quickly. "I'll give myself a username that's something like Just Joe. Don't ask me to explain, because it's really not worth the time. Basically, Joe is a nickname I acquired at the academy when I was younger."

Mandy grinned, then finished her drink. "Okay, I'll look out for you, Just Joe."

"It'll be our inside secret," he said with a laugh. With that, he drained his beer and put the glass down on the table. It brought an end to the evening, much to Roman's disappointment.

"Thank you for coming over, and for the drinks," Mandy said as they got up.

"You're welcome. Thank you for inviting me. It was a really good night."

They walked out of the bar into the lobby. Roman wished for an invite up to Mandy's room, but wasn't surprised when it didn't come.

"Goodnight, Roman. Thanks again for a lovely night."

"I'm glad you enjoyed it as much as I did," he smiled. "Maybe I'll call you? I'd like to stay in touch."

"Definitely," she nodded.

* * *

Not wanting to appear too eager, Roman hadn't called Mandy in the couple of days since they had met. However, after a live event on the second day, he had gone back to his hotel room and decided to load up Twitch on his iPad to see if Mandy was streaming. As soon as the front page came up, he saw that she was. Under the username BedOfRoses, she was playing poker for an audience of seventeen thousand people.

Roman clicked on the stream to open it. He discovered a retro-themed layout, with '80's night' in capital lettering at the top. There was some 80's song that he didn't recognise playing in the background. The song and artist's names were shown in the top right corner.

In the top left corner was Mandy's webcam. It was currently showing an empty gaming chair, for he had happened to show up while she was on a break. Below the webcam was a counter showing how long the stream had been live for - currently just over four hours – and another counter showing how many people had subscribed to the channel during the stream. Roman didn't know how much 110 subs added up to in monetary terms, but he imagined it wasn't bad.

The main part of the screen showed a poker table, with a graphic over it to say that all tables were on break for two more minutes, with the stream chat shown on the right hand side.

Roman quickly made himself a Twitch account, then returned to Mandy's stream. She was now back on the webcam, and the poker had resumed, he saw.

"We're going to be shoving here in the 109 bounty builder, with ace king," Mandy said.

Roman couldn't make himself watch the hand that was in progress, as his attention was riveted to the webcam. "God, she's hot," he murmured.

"Okay, it's a coin flip. I'll take that," Mandy said. She was wearing a tight black PokerStars t-shirt that made her tits look big. Roman liked what he was seeing a lot.

Forcing himself to look at the game, he saw that Mandy's all-in bet with ace king had been called by someone with a pair of nines.

The flop came as seven, ten, king. The turn card was a jack. Another king came on the river.

"Alright, now we're really back in with a chance in that one," Mandy said, happy with the win. Her attention shifted to a notification that popped up on the screen. It signalled that someone had renewed their subscription to the channel. Roman saw the username GetToDaChoppa, with x27 next to it. A text to speech program with a male voice read out the message that the subscriber had sent.

"Hey, Mandy. Saw you on Smackdown the other night. You slapped that bitch Corbin down harder than you did Adam Cole on the final table."

Mandy laughed at the joke. "Twenty seven months, man. Holy shit, that's a long time. How are you, Billy? I hope the back injury isn't still bothering you too much?"

She actually does know her regulars, Roman thought, impressed. In that moment, he decided to subscribe himself. He would see if she remembered the name he had told her he would use.

"Do I know about the virus that's kicking off big time in China?" Mandy said, reading from the chat. "No, I don't. What virus? Is it bad?"

Roman had seen something in the news about China putting some of it's cities into lockdown because of an outbreak, but he hadn't paid much attention to it. Right now, he was more interested in entering his card details into a tab that he had opened. Once that was done, he would be able to subscribe to her channel.

"That sounds pretty bad. I'm sure it won't spread over here though," Mandy said.

Once his card was confirmed, Roman clicked the subscribe button. He typed in a brief message to send with it, then clicked to confirm.

Moments later, the graphic for a new subscriber appeared on the screen. Roman smiled, awaiting the text to speech.

"I said I would stop by," the male voice said.

"JustJoe225 has subscribed," Mandy said. The grin on her face looked delightful to Roman. "Hey, Joe. I know you," she said. "Thank you for dropping in. I don't want to see any of your awful jokes in my chat, you hear me?"

Roman laughed loudly.

After watching the stream for a while, he took out his phone. The idea had occurred to him to text Mandy so that she had the message next time she took a break.

_Hey! I'm glad you remembered who 'Joe' was. Maybe I can call you tomorrow, when you're not streaming?_

About an hour later, there was another five minute break on PokerStars. Roman watched Mandy get up and walk out of sight of the webcam. He wondered if she had her phone with her, and if she would check her messages. He soon found out, when his phone buzzed. A message had been received.

_Mandy Rose: Please do. xxxx_


	4. Chapter 4

"Hi, it's Mandy. Leave a message, and I'll get back to you."

Shit, Roman thought. It was the morning after he had watched her stream. As arranged, he had called her. Unfortunately the call had rung through to voicemail. Since he had always hated leaving voice messages, he hung up instead. She would see the missed call when she next checked her phone, so he hoped that he would get a call back.

When his phone rang an hour later, he was making a last check of his hotel room to make sure he hadn't forgotten anything before leaving. He smiled as he took the phone out of his jeans pocket, expecting to see Mandy's name on the display. Instead, he saw Vince McMahon.

"Out of the ordinary, and definitely not as sexy," he said before answering the call. As he did so, he sat down on the end of the bed. "Hi, Vince."

"Roman, a question for you," Vince said. Wasting time on conversational pleasantries was hardly ever his style.

"Shoot," Roman said.

"What did you think of Mandy Rose's performance Friday night?"

Performance? Roman thought. She had slapped Corbin in the face. It hadn't exactly required her to be Meryl Streep. And why was his opinion being sought anyway?

"She did fine," he decided to reply. "I think I saw a hand print on Corbin's cheek when he got in the back. Why do you ask?"

Vince chuckled heartily at what Roman had said, then answered the question. "I liked her a lot. I'm considering asking her to come in and continue the angle with Corbin."

Of course you liked her a lot, Roman thought, managing not to laugh. It wasn't hard to imagine why. Stunningly beautiful blondes had always been Vince's thing. Naturally, he wasn't going to say anything like that. "Okay, nice. But what does this have to do with me?" he asked.

"If she does want to come in and do some work for us, I want to make you part of the angle with Corbin. He's about to be done with Elias after Elimination Chamber. We're going to go with you and Baron at Wrestlemania, and I'm thinking of having you and Mandy in a romance as a part of it."

Oh, Christ, Roman thought. Romance angles in WWE were notoriously awful, as well as being unpopular with the fans. But on the other hand, working something like that with Mandy would be a lot of fun, if she went for it. That seemed like a pretty monumental if to him. "You think you can sell her on that?" he asked. "I mean, she said she has always been a wrestling fan, and I know she loved her cameo on Smackdown. Whether that means she'll come on-board for an angle, though? I don't know."

"Leave that to me," Vince said confidently. "I just wanted to sound you out on it before I put it in motion."

Well, you told me about it more than sounding me out, Roman thought with a hint of a grin. Vince was Vince, though. "Let me know how you get on," he said.

"Will do," Vince said, and hung up.

"Alright then," Roman said to no one. Things certainly weren't going the way he had imagined when he had gotten up earlier. Now he had to play things carefully when, or if, Mandy called him back. He didn't want her to somehow get the thought into her head that the proposed romance angle was his idea.

* * *

To Roman's great disappointment, he had hadn't gotten a call back from Mandy all day. He knew she had his number saved, and therefore he knew that she knew he had called. He also knew that his call hadn't been unwanted because she had replied to his text and said she wanted him to call her. It didn't make sense, and it was frustrating.

Even more annoyingly, Vince hadn't called again either. That was nothing especially unusual as the boss wasn't a great communicator at the best of times, but today it had pissed Roman off because he was left totally in the dark about what had been said to Mandy, or how she had responded.

The truth was the only time he had stopped thinking about her all day had been while he had been in the ring at that night's live event. He was starting to wonder if he was obsessing a bit. That wasn't a road he wanted to go down.

Deciding to try and get Mandy out of his head for a while, Roman placed an order with room service for a meal and made himself comfortable on the bed. His evening's entertainment would be catching up with Better Call Saul on his iPad. Currently, he was several episodes behind.

Only a few minutes into the first episode he put on, a notification appeared on the screen. For a brief moment he was annoyed at the intrusion, but then he read it. When he had watched Mandy's stream, he had signed himself up to be notified when she went live. Apparently, she just had. Better Call Saul could wait, he thought as he tapped the notification.

The Twitch app loaded up, and Mandy's stream appeared. It was live, but all that was on the screen was a picture of her celebrating her World Series of Poker Main Event win, with a loading bar underneath it. There were already two hundred people watching, he saw, and the number was rising quickly.

For a moment, Roman wondered what the point was in starting a stream without actually being there to host it. But then he realised he was being an idiot. It was for the same reason that WWE pay-per-views had a pre-show – to build up an audience before the action started.

The loading bar was filling up quite quickly, he saw. Looking forward to seeing Mandy, he opted to sit and wait.

"Here we go," he said when the loading bar was full.

"Mandy," her voice said in a sexy whisper, and a sensual piece of saxophone music with a jazz vibe started to play. A countdown from ten minutes had now appeared on the screen, over a different picture of her. In this one, she was modelling the diamond encrusted bracelet that served as a trophy for the Main Event winner. As ever, she looked too hot for words to do it justice.

Frustrated that there was another ten minutes to wait, Roman picked up his phone with the intention of wasting the time on the internet. To his surprise, he found a text waiting for him. He hadn't heard it vibrate.

Mandy Rose: Sorry, Roman! I've had a hell of a day. I'll call you tomorrow if that's okay? xxx

The fact that she had messaged him lifted Roman's spirits greatly. He hadn't been being ignored after all. There was a smile on his face as he typed out a quick reply. He chose not to mention that he was going to be watching her stream again.

No problem. I hope you're okay? I'll chat to you tomorrow. X

He pressed send and waited a few minutes for a reply, but none came. It seemed he would have to find out more about her day when she called him, unless she mentioned it on the stream that was about to go live. He was glad it was about to go live because he knew than damn saxophone music was going to be stuck in his head.

Finally, the countdown reached zero. Mandy's webcam appeared full screen, showing her sitting in her gaming chair. She had a tight white t-shirt on, and a black PokerStars cap. It wasn't the most glamorous look in the world, but she still looked hot as hell. In any event, she was trying to relax, not wow people. There was some chillhop track playing in the background, setting a nice mood for a night time stream.

"Hello, hello, hello," Mandy said, smiling into the camera. "Welcome, everybody, to a much later stream than I intended today. We're starting late, but we're still going to go for a few hours."

That's my night sorted, Roman thought as Mandy started greeting a few people who she recognised in the chat.

"How was your day, Queen?" she read aloud. "It started really well. I had an exciting opportunity come my way that I'll talk to you guys about at a later date. Then I went to work. As some of you know, I help my dad in his sandwich shop once a week or so. Today it was really busy, and one of the machines broke and leaked oil everywhere. You wouldn't believe how hard it was to clean up. That's why I'm late coming on."

An exciting opportunity, Roman thought. That had to refer to Vince calling her. She sounded positive about it, which was a good sign.

"Anyway, now that I'm here, let's play some poker," Mandy said. She switched to a layout that was essentially the same as the first one Roman had seen, only without the 80s night theme. There was already a hand in progress on the table that she was featuring.

"What's the opportunity?" she read from the chat. "I really can't say yet, guys. I'll talk to you about it when I can, I promise."

And I'll talk to you about it tomorrow, Roman thought, very much looking forward to it.

* * *

It was nearly midday when the call from Mandy finally came. Roman was on the road with Sami Zayn, his travelling partner. It was Sami's turn to drive, leaving Roman free to use his phone. He smiled when he saw her name on the display.

"Hi," he said when he answered the call, leaving her name out for now. He could talk to Sami about her afterwards if he wanted to.

"Hey, Roman. How are you?" Mandy asked cheerfully.

"I'm really good. You?"

"I'm good! Roman, I'm sorry I didn't get back to you yesterday. I help my dad out in his sandwich shop from time to time. Yesterday was one of those days were things just go wrong all day, you know? I hardly had a minute, and I had to get on stream as soon as I got home."

"It's all good," Roman said casually. "I'm sorry you had one of those days. I bet your dad appreciated the help though?"

"Oh, he did for sure. It wasn't all bad news yesterday. I got a call from Vince McMahon."

"Me too," Roman decided to reveal. "I'm guessing it was about the same thing."

"He wanted me to work some shows for WWE, continuing the thing with Corbin. And then he wanted to go into a romance storyline with you." She sounded pretty excited about it all.

"Yes, that's what he told me. I'm picking up that you're happy about it," he said, smiling.

"Are you kidding me? I've been a wrestling fan since I was a kid, like I said the other day. It's awesome that I'm going to get to do some more stuff on Smackdown. Add that to the list of things I never thought would happen to me that have now happened. I have to tell you, though, I rejected the romance angle with you."

Roman did his best hide his disappointment. "Oh. Can I ask why?"

"Nothing personal at all," Mandy said quickly, sounding like she was concerned that she might have offended him. "Honestly, I didn't see why Vince thought it was a good idea. A lot of fans seem to want to boo you the first chance they get, and I'm an outsider, meaning it would be easy for me to be booed too. Why would they get behind us?"

She's actually got a good mind for the business, Roman thought. There wasn't much that he could say to counter her points. "So what did Vince say to that?" he asked.

"He took it on-board, and pitched me his alternate idea. We ended up going with that one."

"What was the alternate idea?" Roman asked.

"The same romance storyline, but with Otis."

Roman roared with laughter. "You and Otis? Oh my god, that's going to be hilarious."

"I'm glad you think so, I guess," Mandy said. "But do you think it'll work?"

"Honestly, it will depend on the writing. Most storylines do," he explained. "It'll be one of those that either goes really well, or really badly. I hope it goes well for you, I really do."

"Thanks, Roman. I'm going to have to go, but I'll be at Smackdown again on Friday. Could we maybe get together? I'd like to get some advice from you before my first proper performance."

"Sure. No problem at all," Roman said. "My services come at a price though."

"Do they really? What price is that?" Mandy asked, sounding amused.

"Drinks, again. This time it's your turn to pay."

"So it is. Alright, Roman, it's a deal. I'll see you Friday. Have a good day."

"You too, Mandy."

Roman ended the call and saw Sami glancing at him from the driver's seat. "Mandy? You've got Mandy Rose calling you?"

"I sure have," Roman grinned. "She's going to be on the show again Friday, and we're going for drinks afterwards."

To Roman's amusement, Sami started singing Smooth Operator. How smooth he was remained to be seen, but he didn't think he was off to a bad start.


	5. Chapter 5

Roman was standing in a hallway talking to Baron Corbin and Elias when he saw Mandy arrive. His mouth nearly dropped open the moment he set eyes on her, for there was no PokerStars gear on show this time. She was wearing a stunning silver dress that complimented her gorgeous figure perfectly, as well as showing off plenty of leg and cleavage. She looked absolutely incredible.

"I'd buy that for a dollar," Elias said quietly.

"You really need to stop dropping movie quotes into conversation," Corbin said, and Roman laughed.

Having seen the group of three men, all of whom she had met the previous week, Mandy came over with a smile on her face. "Hi, guys! I didn't think I'd be seeing you again so soon."

"Hi, Mandy. You look great," Roman said.

"Thank you," she smiled warmly.

"I hear we're going to be working together again. I'm looking forward to it," Corbin said.

"Me too," Mandy said, still smiling. "So, do I need to report to Vince? I mean, what happens now?"

"You don't need to report to anyone," Elias said.

"All we need to do is get together later to lay out our segment, like we did last week," Corbin said.

"Until then, your time is your own, unless you're summoned to see Vince or the writers," Roman said. He could see that she didn't need to go to the locker room as she only had a little clutch with her.

"Okay, great. Can you show me where catering is, please? I could murder a coffee and a sandwich."

The fact that the request had been directed to Roman specifically didn't escape him. She wanted to speak to him away from the other guys. He wasn't going to object. "Sure. It's this way," he said, starting to walk with her.

"So, how are you?" Mandy asked once it was just the two of them.

"Yeah, I'm good thanks. Fresh off of a couple of days at home, which is always nice. How about you? How is the poker going?"

"I haven't played for a few days. Sometimes you have to have a break to keep your mind fresh. It's such a mental game, it's so hard to do well if you're not feeling fresh. That's what was hardest about the Main Event. Seven straight days of live poker damn near killed me."

Roman felt somewhat glad that he had a passing interest in poker. At least he knew enough to understand it and have a conversation with her about it. "What would you say is the hardest part about playing?" he asked.

"Patience," Mandy said without needing to think about it. "Especially when you're playing live because it's obviously only one hand at a time. If you get a bad run of cards you can go for ages without playing a hand unless you lose your discipline. At least online you have multiple tables, so there's almost always something going on."

They walked into the catering area and went over to the coffee machine, where Roman let Mandy go first.

"How many tables do you play at a time?" he asked.

"Six to eight, ideally. It can be more, depending on which tournaments are going on. I wouldn't play more than twelve."

Roman shook his head in wonder. "Eight or more tables at once. How can you possibly concentrate on all of that?"

"Concentrate on all of that and the stream," Mandy grinned as she moved aside to let him use the coffee machine. She took a sip from the drink she had made. "Not bad coffee."

"Yeah, the coffee is usually good, thankfully. Is steaming hard? I wouldn't have the first idea."

"Hard?" Mandy said thoughtfully. "I wouldn't say hard, no. It's often great, hanging out and chatting with a bunch of people while I play. It also used to be a nice source of extra income when I had to make money from a regular job. It still seems weird that I don't anymore. But on the other hand, you do get assholes in the chat. Every time I lose a big hand there's people giving it 'That was a fold' or 'How did you call that?' It's really annoying."

Roman laughed lightly. "Yeah, you slapped someone down pretty hard for that on the stream I watched. Shall we go and sit down?"

"Let me grab a sandwich, then I can pick your brain about the show. I'm feeling quite nervous about it to be honest."

Roman followed her over to the selection of sandwiches, then once she had selected one, he led the way over to a table. He sat down, and Mandy sat opposite him.

"You really shouldn't feel nervous," he said. "I get why you do, but you shouldn't. Think of it this way: You've been streaming for years. That's you on camera in front of an audience. You've attracted quite a following by being yourself, so tonight? That's what you should do. Forget trying to play a character and give the audience Mandy."

She looked surprised by the advice. "It's that simple? Just be Mandy?"

"Yeah. So far as I'm aware you haven't been given any kayfabe character to play. You're Mandy Rose the poker star. So be Mandy Rose the poker star. The only issue you might have is memorising your script, but I'm going to guess you won't have a huge amount of lines."

"Probably not," Mandy agreed after another sip of coffee. "Thinking about it, that does seem like a good way to look at it. Being in front of the camera on stream doesn't bother me at all. If I try and treat this like being on stream, it should be fine. Thanks, Roman. It's simple advice, yet it has given me the confidence boost I needed."

Roman took a hit from his coffee cup. "No need to thank me. If it helped, I'm glad."

"I haven't forgotten the deal we made," Mandy said. To Roman's excitement, he saw in her eyes that she was very much looking forward to their evening drinks, and he got a fair idea as to why. It seemed that she definitely liked him too, as he had thought when they had first met. That initial connection had been real, and undeniable.

"I'm looking forward to it," he smiled.

"Now that I kind of work here, I want to hear some stories about people," Mandy said, her eyes gleaming.

"Oh, I have some stories for you," Roman said with a laugh. "You have to keep them to yourself though."

"Of course. I want to have a laugh, not to cause trouble. You know what else I want? To find out what I'm doing on the show."

"You'll find out soon enough," Roman assured her. "If you want, we'll run through your lines together. Practice makes perfect."

Mandy flashed him a dazzling smile across the table. "Thank you! You're the best."

Christ, I'm falling for this girl so fast, Roman thought. Just seeing that smile made his heart beat faster. He really wanted to kiss her, but it wasn't the time, and it certainly wasn't the place.

* * *

For Mandy's first proper Smackdown appearance, she had been given a part in a backstage interview. It was shown about halfway through the show, and began with Kayla Braxton looking into the camera.

"Please welcome my guest, Elias."

The fans cheered, then as the camera panned around to reveal not only Elias, who was holding a guitar, but also Mandy, there was another cheer along with some wolf whistles.

"Oh," Kayla said in surprise when she saw Mandy. "Mandy Rose is also here. Hi, Mandy."

"Hi, Kayla," Mandy smiled.

"Elias, I was going to ask you about your actions last week," Kayla said. "Do you think you went a bit too far in smashing a guitar over the head of Baron Corbin?"

"No, Kayla, I don't. Actually, I don't think I went far enough. That's why if I see Corbin again tonight, I'm going to bust this guitar over his head as well. But before I do that, I'm hoping I get to see Mandy slap the taste out of his mouth again because when she did it last week, that was one of the best things I've ever seen in my life. It was so good that I decided to invite Mandy back to Smackdown this week, and I even wrote her a song."

"You wrote a song for me?" Mandy asked, sounding thrilled and honoured by it.

"I did, and you're going to love it," Elias said. He began to tune up his guitar, but then he was knocked to the ground from behind, dropping the guitar. Baron Corbin was the man responsible. Mandy screamed and backed away, as Kayla ran for it.

"You want to hit me with a guitar again, Elias? Huh?" Corbin yelled, viciously stamping on his fallen foe.

Mandy noticed the guitar on the floor, and since Corbin had her back to her, she picked it up with the intent to hit him with it. Unfortunately for her, Corbin stopped his attack and spun around to face her as she wound up her swing.

"You going to hit me, Mandy?" Corbin snarled, starting to stalk her.

Backing away in fright, Mandy dropped the guitar. She then tripped over her own feet, ending up sitting on her ass on the floor.

"Where are you going, bitch? There's nowhere to go," Corbin said menacingly, looming over her.

As the camera had panned to follow Corbin and Mandy, the guitar had ended up out of the shot. Suddenly, it was slammed into Corbin's back, exploding everywhere and knocking him down.

The cheering audience would understandably assume that Elias had done it, but Otis stepped into the shot and offered his hand to help Mandy up. She took his hand and accepted his assistance. The way she looked at him gave a small hint as to where the angle was going as she said, "Thank you, Otis."

"You're welcome, Mandy," Otis replied, looking delighted to have received any kind of acknowledgement from her.

"Okay, good job," one of the producers said a moment later, safe in the knowledge that the show had moved on to the next segment.

As soon as the segment was over, Mandy headed over to Roman who had been standing nearby at her request. He didn't know why that was supposed to be a help to her, but he hadn't questioned it. He was happy to help if he could.

"I think that went well!" she said excitedly, beaming.

"Yeah, it did. But you've got shit on your dress," he said, pointing to her butt.

Mandy looked, and found nothing. He had tricked her. She responded by threatening to kick him in the shin and laughing. "You're an asshole."

"Even you don't believe that," he said. Their eyes lingered on each other again, and there was real electricity in the air. They would have kissed for sure if there hadn't been a bunch of people around. The time was coming though, Roman knew. He didn't think it would take long, either.


	6. Chapter 6

Roman couldn't have been happier. He and Mandy had met at a bar close to the hotel she was staying in, and had spent a thoroughly enjoyable couple of hours chatting away over a few drinks. As promised, he had told several funny stories about some of his colleagues. He couldn't have hoped for a better reaction, as Mandy had almost been crying with laughter at one point.

Not for the first time, Roman had found himself thinking that there was a real spark between them. He felt it deep with himself, and he saw it in her eyes. It wasn't just some fleeting attraction between them. No, it was much more than that.

Mandy finished her glass of red wine and looked at her watch. "I'd better get moving, Roman," she said. "Got to be up early tomorrow for my flight home."

"Yeah, and I've got to head out for the next show," Roman said with a bit of a sigh.

"The travel must be a killer in your job," Mandy said sympathetically.

"It really is. Obviously we know that when we sign up, but that doesn't make it any easier. Be glad that you're only going to be working TV shows. Live events are fun to work though."

"You'd just prefer not to have to travel to get to them," Mandy said.

"Exactly. What about you? Do you travel much to play poker? Let's go outside and get an Uber booked. If you like we can share one so you don't have to get one by yourself?"

"Sounds good. You can drop me off at my hotel," Mandy said. "And no, I don't travel much for poker. Honestly, I don't play live much, although that will probably change. I keep getting offers to play televised games."

Well, that couldn't have been much clearer, Roman thought with disappointment. There would be no invite to join her in her room, it seemed. In a way, though, he felt okay with it. If she didn't want to rush things, he didn't either. It was better to wait for a moment that truly felt right for both of them. He would at least try for a kiss, he decided. For now, it was best to keep the conversation on the other thing she had said.

"Have you accepted any of those offers?" he asked as they walked out of the bar into the cold night air.

"I have accepted a couple. The first one is a couple of weeks from now. They get six recognisable players to play each other in a cash game. Of course they pay an appearance fee and take care of your expenses. Adam Cole is going to be one of the other players."

"That's the guy you busted on the queens versus kings hand, right?" Roman asked as she put her white coat on, looking less than impressed with how cold it was.

"That's right," she said. "I haven't seen him since, so that should be fun. Needless to say that's why they've booked us both for the same show."

"I'm sure it is," Roman said. He was busy on his phone, on the Uber app. "I'll have to check that out when it's on. You'll let me know, won't you?"

"Of course," Mandy smiled.

Fifteen minutes later, the Uber pulled up out front of Mandy's hotel. They had continued chatting away while they had waited for the ride, and during it. Roman felt a little nervous now. He was going to walk her into the hotel, then attempt to go in for a kiss.

"Wait here, please. I need to continue on to my hotel," he said to the driver.

"Sure thing," the overweight grey haired man said.

Roman and Mandy got out of the car, and he walked around it to accompany her into the hotel.

"Thank you for another lovely night, Roman," she said affectionately as they walked towards the entrance. "I don't think I've laughed that much in a long time."

"My pleasure. But I should be thanking you. I had such a great time, plus you insisted on paying for everything. So, thank you."

"Roman, I was looking at the WWE schedule last night. You have a live event in New York this coming Tuesday night, then nothing on Wednesday or Thursday."

"That's right," he nodded as they entered the hotel's lobby. He wasn't sure where she was going with the question.

"I was thinking you could come upstate in the morning. I'll be working in my dad's shop. We could work a shift together."

They stopped near to the entrance and Roman looked at her with his eyebrows raised. "You want me to work in your dad's sandwich shop?"

"Yes, I do."

Then it clicked in Roman's head. He knew exactly why she wanted him to do that. Before she allowed anything to get serious between them, she wanted to see what her dad thought of him. If he didn't approve, she would likely break it off before it really got started. It suggested a very strong father – daughter relationship, and Roman had to respect that. He also knew that the test was beginning right now, with his response.

"Alright, sounds like a plan," he said with a smile.

"Great!" Mandy smiled back. "And afterwards, we can go back to my place. It's nothing special though, I warn you. I'm going to look into moving soon."

It wasn't hard to read between the lines that they would only be going back to her place if the rest of the day had gone well. Not lacking in confidence, Roman backed himself to make sure that wasn't a problem.

"I'll look forward to it," he said, looking into her eyes and giving her a smile that had a bit of mischief in it.

"Me too," Mandy breathed. She stretched up and gave him a peck on the lips. "I'm sure we'll text over the weekend. I'll get you the address of the shop."

"Alright. Goodnight, Mandy."

"Goodnight, Roman."

Roman went in for another kiss, deciding to limit it to a peck, since that was what she had gone for. She seemed like she wasn't the type to rush things. Nonetheless, it was a nice peck. He got the taste of red wine on his lips to remember it by.

With one more lingering look, Roman turned and walked away. He felt delighted with how the night had gone, and excited for what was to come the next time they met.

* * *

It had been a while since Roman had caught up with Seth Rollins, his closest friend. They had called each other a couple of times, but had missed each other. On Roman's part, that had been because he had been busy watching Mandy stream when Seth had called him.

Back in his hotel room after the evening out, Roman decided to try and call Seth before getting ready for bed. It was quite late, but he knew Seth rarely went to bed early. Sure enough, the call was answered after a few rings.

"Hey, man. How are you?" Seth asked.

"Good, man. You?" Roman asked, lounging back on his bed, head on the pillows.

"Yeah, doing pretty good. Having fun with the new Messiah gimmick."

Roman smiled. "I told you Vince would go for it."

"You did. As much as it hurts me to admit it, you were right," Seth said, and they both laughed. "I didn't think Buddy would get added to the group."

"No, I didn't see that coming either. It does work, though."

"Yeah, it does. Apparently it's going to be me and KO at Wrestlemania," Seth revealed.

"That should be good. He's always good to work with," Roman said.

"Yeah, he is. You've got Corbin, I heard."

"That's right. With almost no time to build anything meaningful for it," Roman said, making it clear that he wasn't exactly thrilled about it.

"Too busy focusing on poker players because they happen to be hot," Seth grumbled. "Honestly, that dumb shit really gets on my nerves. As if that bimbo has a clue about wrestling."

"I guess this where I mention that I took Mandy out for drinks tonight, for the second time," Roman said. Rather than taking offense, he found amusement in the way his friend had inadvertently put his foot in his mouth.

"Oh! Sorry, man. I feel bad now."

"It's okay," Roman said. "Just don't judge so quickly. She's actually been a wrestling fan since she was a kid, and she's certainly no bimbo, trust me."

"Consider me put in my place," Seth said. "How serious is it with you guys, then? Two dates already is quick progress."

"I wouldn't necessarily say they were dates," Roman said thoughtfully. He wasn't entirely sure how to best describe the situation he was in. "It's weird, like, the moment I met her there was such a spark between us. I feel like I'm falling for her fast, and I know she feels the same way, I can tell."

"Is she playing it cautiously?" Seth asked.

"Yeah. We kissed tonight, but I'm talking literally a peck on the lips. She has invited me to go and help her as she helps her dad in his sandwich shop later this week though. It's something she does quite often, apparently."

"Oh shit, you're on trial, bro," Seth said with a laugh. "Seriously though, that tells me she likes you. I'm thinking maybe she's not been in many relationships, if any, and she wants to make sure you're the right kind of guy before she jumps in. I guess she's going to rely on her dad's opinion."

Roman took that in, slowly nodding in agreement. He hadn't thought of it like that, but it did make sense to him. He had no idea what Mandy's relationship history was as it was something they hadn't yet talked about.

"I think you might be right. I'm really going to have to make a good impression, aren't I?"

"Yeah, you are," Seth said with another laugh. "But you've got this, man. You're a good dude, and her dad will see that. Mandy already has by the sound of it. I want to know how it goes."

"I'll be sure to let you know either way," Roman promised. Now more than ever, he was determined to make a success of it. The thought occurred to him that one day he and Mandy might tell people that their first date had been a shift at a sandwich shop. In that moment, it was what he wanted more than anything else in the world.


	7. Chapter 7

"You have reached your destination," the satnav in Roman's car informed him.

He yawned as he looked carefully through the windshield, trying to spot Mandy's dad's sandwich shop. One thing he couldn't be accused of was not making an effort to impress her. She had told him the shop opened at 8am, so it would be good if he could get there by 7:30 at the latest. The drive had taken an hour, plus he had needed to shower and eat breakfast before leaving his hotel. Therefore his alarm had woken him at 5:30, and even the strong coffee that he'd had with breakfast hadn't fully woken him up. He hoped he would be able to get one in the shop.

"There it is," Roman said to himself. He had just seen the sandwich shop on the right side of the street. The sign along the frontage was black, with the name Rose's in stylish gold lettering. Underneath, in smaller lettering, was a summary of what was sold there: Sandwiches, salads, sweets, coffee.

"Coffee. Sign me the hell up," Roman said. He cruised past the shop and made a right turn at the nearby intersection. Mandy had told him that parking was free along that road, and that there were always plenty of spaces early in the morning.

Sure enough, Roman saw lots of available spots at the side of the road when he turned the corner. He also saw a bright red Ferrari parked up, which made him laugh out loud. There was only one person it could belong to.

"Mandy's here then," he said to himself. "Spend some of those winnings, girl."

The space in front of the Ferrari was free, so Roman backed his rental Audi into it, imagining himself hitting Mandy's car and having to explain it to her. If it really happened it wouldn't be funny, but the fact that he contemplated it made him smile. Fortunately, the Ferrari escaped his parking unscathed, and he killed the Audi's engine.

After getting out of his car, Roman took a quick look around the Ferrari. He didn't know much about cars, and there was nothing to say what model he was looking at. Anyone would have recognised the famous prancing horse badge on the hood, though.

"Very nice," Roman said as he started his walk towards the sandwich shop. Now it was time to focus on meeting Mandy's father. He had no idea what to expect. What he had to do was try his very best to make a good impression, since it seemed likely that Mandy was going to rely a lot on her dad's opinion of him before she chose to let things go any further, or not.

Another thing on his mind was what he was going to be asked to do. He had no experience working in the food industry at all, and the only retail experience he had went back to the very early days of NXT, when Hunter Helmsley had sent all of the recruits out to sell tickets to shows. It hadn't been something that Roman had exactly excelled at, either.

Mandy had asked him to send her a text when he was parked up so that she could meet him outside the shop. He supposed the door would be locked otherwise, since they weren't open yet. He took out his phone and sent her a quick message.

_Hi! I'll be with you in two minutes. x_

No response came, but as he neared the shop, Roman saw Mandy step outside. She was wearing a plain white tee, black pants, a black apron, purple nitrile gloves, and amusingly, a hair net. At least it was amusing until the thought occurred to him that he might be asked to dress the same way. He had at least worn appropriate black pants and a grey fleece style jacket.

"Hi! I'm so glad you came!" Mandy beamed as he approached.

"Hi! I'm happy to be here. It's great to see you."

"Great to see you too." Mandy reached up and gave him a peck on the lips in greeting. "You found your way okay then?" she smiled.

"Yeah, the satnav brought me straight here. I parked in front of what I assume is your Ferrari."

"Guilty," Mandy giggled. "I've been determined to be sensible with my winnings, but a nice car was one thing I simply had to indulge myself with."

"I get it. I've got a Bugatti at home," Roman said with a smile.

"Well, there you go," she said, still smiling broadly. She seemed very happy to see Roman, which made him in turn feel very happy indeed. "And you haven't commented on my appearance. Bonus points for that."

"I'd say you even make a hair net look sexy, but..." He let his voice trail off.

"Don't start, mister," she warned, pointing a stern finger at him. It was all in good nature, and Roman smiled. "We'd better go in. There's plenty of work still to do before we open."

"After you," Roman said in an upbeat manner. By no means a nervous person, he nonetheless felt some unease in the pit of his stomach. He was about to make his first impression on her dad, which would go a long way to determining how the day went, and what it's outcome would be.

Walking into the shop behind Mandy, Roman found it a bit smaller than he had expected. There were only four tables for customers to eat at, which told him that people came in primarily for take out food. It made sense, since it seemed they were in a prime shopping district based on what he had seen in the surrounding area.

Along the right side of the shop was the counter, which had a large number of storage containers for salad boxes and sandwich toppings, about two thirds of which were currently full. He assumed that stocking them up was what Mandy had been working on. At the far end of the counter was a fridge full of drinks. There was a coffee machine on the work surface on the other side of the staff area from the counter, along with an enormous toasting machine. At the end of the counter closest to the door was the cash register. Overall, it looked like an expensive, impressive setup. Rose's had to be a popular place, Roman figured.

"Dad! Roman is here!" Mandy called out as she walked behind the counter, with Roman close behind her. He saw an open door that had to lead to storeroom, he assumed.

He was taken in there, and found that it was actually a food prep area, with a store room even further back. There was also a massive oven for baking bread. Mandy's dad was chopping up some fresh meat at a table, putting the pieces into one of the storage boxes that slotted into the counter out in the shop. He turned to look at Roman, and they got a first look at each other. Mr Rose was six feet tall at most, slightly overweight, but had a jolly-looking face. He too was wearing a hair net, an apron, and gloves. He took one of them off and offered his hand to Roman, along with a smile.

"Roman, this is my dad, Michael," Mandy said. "Dad, Roman."

"Good to meet you, sir," Roman said politely as they shook hands.

"You too, Roman. You can call me Michael. You ever work in a sandwich shop before?" he asked in a strong New York accent, a twinkle of amusement in his eyes.

"Not even close," Roman grinned. "I've never worked in any kind of shop before."

"Pretty much what I thought," Michael said with some amusement. "Well, I appreciate you coming to help us out. It seems Amanda likes you a lot."

It was then that Roman noticed Mandy had quietly disappeared, leaving them to it. He felt properly put on the spot. "Uh, yes, sir. I mean, I like her a lot, too."

Michael laughed. "Whoa. I really put you under the gun there, didn't I? That wasn't what I intended."

"It's all good," Roman said. "Anyway, it's true, we do like each other."

"That's why you got up at 5am or something and drove all the way up here to meet her old man and work all day in his sandwich shop?"

"Uh, yes," Roman said, answering almost in the form of a question. He hadn't expected Michael to be amused by the whole thing.

Michael smiled. "Relax, man. I'm not going to give you a hard time. I respect that you did it just because she asked you to. If this is going to turn into something between the two of you, I'll support it so long as it makes Amanda happy. But, Roman, you should know that since my wife passed, Amanda is all I have in the world. I'm not going to stand by if someone hurts her either mentally or physically, so make sure that doesn't happen."

Roman nodded seriously, noting the look in the man's eyes. There was no doubt about the strength of the father – daughter relationship at all. "I'm not that kind of person, believe me. I'd damn sure never lay a finger on a woman in anger, and if I found myself in a relationship that wasn't working I would simply end it. I would play around behind her back."

Michael took that in, seeming to find the response acceptable. "Good man," he said after a moment.

Deciding to chance a joke, Roman smiled. "Does that mean I get out of working all day?"

Michael laughed heartily and slapped him on the shoulder. "Not a chance. You're here for the duration. Amanda! Show Roman how to work the cash register, please!" he called through to the shop.

"Okay, dad!" Mandy called back.

Roman had to grin at the way her dad was going to make him work all day despite his lack of experience or talent for the job at hand. They had gotten off to a pretty good start, but he was under no illusion that he would still be being assessed throughout. "I'll get to it, then," he said, enjoying the moment of humour between them.

When he went back out into the shop, Roman found Mandy crouched down, arranging the different kinds of breads for the sandwiches into racks behind the counter. "How did that go?" she asked quietly as she stood up.

"Good," Roman replied at a similar volume. "I like your dad. He is making me work the shift though," he grinned.

Mandy smiled in amusement. "Of course he is. He gave the regular guy a day off because you were coming."

"It's a good thing I showed then," Roman quipped, and Mandy rolled her eyes. "You make all of that bread fresh every day?" he asked, looking at it.

"Sure do," she said proudly. "Our two bakers come in every morning to do it."

"I'm getting the impression this place is popular," Roman said.

Mandy smiled. "The most popular sandwich shop in the area. We're very proud of that."

"As you should be."

"Right, let me show you how the register works. I'll be taking people's orders, so I'll tell you what to charge them."

"Good, because I suck at math," Roman laughed as they walked over to the register.

It only took her a couple of minutes to show him how the register worked. With that done, she looked at him and gave him a gorgeous smile. "Okay, we're all set. It's good, because we'll be opening soon."

"On second thoughts, I'll take one of those hair nets," Roman said.

"Why?" Mandy asked. "You don't need one, you won't be handling food."

"No, but it will make it a lot harder for people to recognise me. Trust me, you don't want word to get out that there's a free meet and greet opportunity with Roman Reigns in here. Things would go south fast."

The look on Mandy's face showed that it was a possibility that she hadn't considered. "Good point. Okay, I'll get you one, and an apron. Your jacket is covering your tattoos."

"I'm a master of disguise," Roman quipped. "Call me Joe, the sandwich guy."

"I'll do that," Mandy laughed happily. "Okay, Joe, let's get you ready for opening."


	8. Chapter 8

"Jesus Christ," Roman said under his breath. Looking through the shop's windows, he could see four people lined up, waiting to come in.

"What?" Mandy asked, looking at him from the other end of the counter, where she was finishing up the preparation work. He knew he had it seriously bad for her because he even found her gorgeous in her sandwich shop outfit.

"You actually have people line up before you open."

"Amanda doesn't like customers who do that, do you?" Michael asked with humour as he walked through from the prep room into the shop.

"No," she said, managing a smile. "But nonetheless, there they are, and it's up to us to serve them. Are we all set?"

"Set," Michael confirmed. "Roman?"

"Yeah, I'm good, I think. By the way, Mandy and I agreed to use my nickname today, Joe. Believe me when I say you don't want word getting around that Roman Reigns is here all day."

"There would be wrestling fans everywhere, dad," Mandy said. "Today he's just Joe, the sandwich guy."

The fact the she remembered the just Joe thing made Roman smile internally. He was surprised himself by how much it meant to him.

Michael laughed on his way over to unlock the shop's door. "Okay, I got it. Joe it is."

As Michael unlocked the door and greeted the waiting customers, Roman looked at Mandy. She smiled, giving him a look that said, 'You've got this.' She was in the process of turning on the shop's music system. It began playing the same kind of chillhop music that he had heard on one of her streams.

Not for the first time, Roman found himself thinking that if a relationship did develop between them, they would look back on this day and laugh about it. For now, he had the chance to see how she interacted with customers.

The first ones were an expensively-dressed young couple. They didn't really look like the type to eat subs, but Roman supposed that was him judging a book by the cover.

"Good morning, guys. What can I get you?" Mandy asked in a cheerful yet professional manner.

"Morning," the man said. Both he and his girlfriend were looking at the menu boards on the wall behind the counter.

"I'll get a Turkey Club to go, please. And a latte," the woman said.

"I'll get a latte, too. And a Reuben, please."

"Full sandwiches, or halves?" Mandy asked.

"I think full?" the man said to his partner for confirmation.

"Yeah, let's go full," she decided.

"Would you like them toasted?" Mandy asked.

"Yes, please."

Mandy repeated the order to her dad, who already had the coffee machine working on the drinks. He then put together one of the sandwiches, while Mandy prepared the other. She then supervised the toasting, while Michael finished the coffees. It was a seriously smooth operation they had going on, Roman thought.

When the order was complete, Mandy put it all by the cash register for Roman to finish the sale and bag it up. Thankfully, she remembered to tell him how much to charge.

"Twenty nine twenty five," Mandy said.

Christ, Roman thought. The sandwiches had looked delicious as they came out of the toasting machine, and the coffee smelled great, reminding him that he should have asked for one earlier, but nearly thirty bucks was a lot for two meals. Still, the prices were none of his business. He was there to take the money.

"Twenty nine twenty five, please," he said, remembering to smile at the customers. Two twenty dollars bills came his way from the guy, and Roman felt thankful that the change wasn't hard to work out for his first sale of the day. By the time he had completed the sale and bagged up the sandwiches, the next order was already toasting.

"Thank you," he said as he handed the purchases over to the day's first customers.

The next order soon arrived at the register. It was a sandwich, a soda and a cookie. "Seventeen fifty," Mandy said.

Roman settled in for the long haul, realising that he had underestimated how busy he was going to be.

* * *

"Wow, what a day," Roman said with a sigh, looking at Mandy, who seemed no worse for wear after working for ten hours with only a few minutes here and there for breaks, plus another hour cleaning up after closing.

Michael had just left to take the day's takings to the bank. During the limited opportunities that they'd had to chat, Roman believed they had gotten on quite well. A few laughs had been shared, which was certainly a positive. He couldn't see how he might have made a better impression.

"Do you think your dad liked me, then?" he asked.

"Are you kidding?" Mandy asked, scrubbing away at the counter, which was the final cleaning project of the night. Her hair net and apron were now gone, but she was wearing black rubber gloves to protect her hands against the cleaning solution she was using. As ever, she looked stunning to Roman.

"So you're saying he did?"

"Roman, you came all the way up here, worked all day, never complained about anything, cracked your jokes, and turned down his offer to pay you. I don't know what more you could have done. And you only screwed up a few times," she added with a grin.

Mission accomplished, Roman thought, picturing himself launching a home run out of the park. This rather bizarre day hadn't only been about meeting her father, he realised. It seemed like it had been about Mandy wanting to be totally sure what kind of man she was about to get involved with. Apparently, she was happy with the results.

"I'm not going to lie, I could murder something to eat," he said, hoping that it might give her an opening to invite him back to her place. It did, and she took it.

"You won't have to murder anything. You can come back to my place and I'll order in."

"Now that's an offer I can't refuse," Roman said, walking over to her, feeling turned on already.

Mandy stood up and looked up at him. "Don't kiss me now. I look a complete state."

"You really don't," Roman assured her.

"My hair is a mess, I feel sweaty, I smell of bleach, and I'm dressed like this."

"I don't care. You look hot as hell to me, and I want to kiss you." Leaning down slightly, Roman did just that. The first kiss was light, little more than a peck. He followed it with a more passionate one, getting his first real taste of her. It turned him on so much, such was the extent to which he had been thinking about the moment.

"Let me finish this cleaning real quick and we can get out of here," Mandy breathed, pulling back. To Roman, she looked a little blown away by the kiss. It gave him the impression that Seth was right about her not being experienced romantically.

As Mandy turned around to continue cleaning, Roman put his arms around her waist from behind and started kissing her neck.

She let out a soft moan of pleasure at first, but then she pulled away from him. "Can we wait until we get home? I want to feel clean and be dressed up nice when we, you know, make out for the first time."

"Of course we can," Roman said gently, feeling bad for seemingly making her feel flustered. He stepped back, allowing her to carry on with her work.

A couple of minutes later, she was done. They had been an awkward couple of minutes, with no conversation. Roman had spent them leaning against the work surface by the toasting machine, watching her work. He was hoping that he hadn't spoiled the positive day by moving too quickly, and he didn't know exactly what to do next.

Thankfully, when Mandy had finishing cleaning the counter, she took the initiative. "Okay, I'm done," she said turning around to face him. She pulled the gloves off her hands and draped them over the side of the counter. "Roman, I'm sorry if I snapped at you. It's just that I didn't see our first proper kiss happening here, like this."

"It's fine," he smiled easily. "Anyway, our first proper kiss hasn't happened yet."

"Shall we get out of here?" she asked.

"Ready when you are."

"I'll just check if everything is turned off, then I'll be with you."

Roman walked over to the shop's entrance door to wait for her while she did her checks. He had enjoyed his day at Rose's, despite how busy it had been. He couldn't begin to estimate how much money they had taken, but it had to be thousands. Michael was doing well for himself, with Mandy's help.

"Okay, let's go," Mandy said when she appeared from the prep room. She walked over and unlocked the door, let Roman go outside ahead of her, then closed the door behind them and locked it.

Without needing to be asked, Roman pulled the black steel shutter down for her, and she locked it in place.

"Time to go home," she said with an air of relief as they began walking to their cars. "There's a hot shower with my name on it."

"That sounds good," Roman said without really thinking. Then he almost cursed himself in case she thought he meant he wanted to go into the shower with her.

"You're welcome to have one after me," she said, giving no such indication.

"Thanks," he smiled.

"Then we can order food when you're done. What would you like to eat?"

"I really don't mind. I'm blessed not to be fussy in the least when it comes to food. So long as it's good, I'll eat it."

"How about pizza then?" Mandy asked.

"Pizza works," he smiled. In truth, Roman couldn't have cared less what she ordered, it was the company he was interested in. For the first time, they were going to spend some quality time together. They would chat, have some laughs, kiss, and maybe more. One thing has was going to be sure to do was let things go at Mandy's pace. If she was inexperienced or lacking confidence, that was the best way to play it.

Shortly, they approached where their cars were parked.

"I'm still at the point where I'm glad it's still there when I come back to it," Mandy said, looking fondly at her Ferrari.

"It's a beautiful car. What model is it?" Roman asked.

"It's a 488 Pista. It's the only good car I've ever owned. It's such a dream to drive. We'll have to for a ride in it at some point."

At some point, Roman noted. It made him very happy, since it confirmed that she expected there to be more points for them to do things together. "I'd like that," he said.

Mandy smiled as she stepped up to her driver's door. "Alright, follow me. I'll lead the way to my place."

Roman nodded. "I'll be right behind you."

He would have liked to have hung around to hear the Ferrari fire up, imagining it would sound very impressive. But there would be another time to enjoy that. Right now, he was about to accompany the beautiful, lovely woman he was falling for back to her place.

There was a smile on his face as he got into the Audi. From behind, he heard a rather high pitched roar as the Ferrari's engine came to life.

Roman caught sight of himself in the rear view mirror. He looked as happy as he felt. "Well worth ten hours behind a cash register," he said to himself as he fired up his car.


	9. Chapter 9

Mandy had driven home at a leisurely pace, making it easy for Roman to follow behind her. The journey had taken them nearly fifteen minutes by the time the Ferrari indicated right to pull into a driveway.

It was dark, but the streets were well lit and Roman could tell that Mandy would be the only Ferrari owner in the neighbourhood. It wasn't exactly run down, but it sure wasn't the kind of place where millionaires lived. He wasn't surprised that she had announced her intention to buy herself a place elsewhere.

Mandy's house had an attached single garage. Roman saw the door opening, and she slowly drove the Ferrari in there. He pulled up on the short driveway and killed the rental Audi's engine. They both got out of their cars at the same time.

"I didn't lose you then?" Mandy giggled as she walked out of the garage towards him. The door started closing behind her.

"Did you try to?" Roman laughed as he locked his car.

"No," she smiled. "Right, let's go in. I really can't wait for that shower."

"After you," Roman said, joining her in approaching the front door.

Mandy unlocked it, and led the way inside.

Roman found himself in Mandy's living room. It was quite small, but the furniture was nice, and the place seemed impeccably clean. There was a scent of air freshener in the air.

"Like I said before, this place isn't much," Mandy said. "It was all I could afford at the time."

"It looks nice," Roman said, using his tone to encourage her not to talk herself down.

Mandy turned and unexpectedly gave him a peck on the lips. "Thank you. Make yourself at home. I'm going to go up and shower. If you'd like anything to drink or snack on, the kitchen is through there on your right," she said, pointing to an open door on the left of the living room.

"Thanks," he said quietly, and pecked her on the lips. He realised that she didn't want to go further than that, yet.

"I won't be long. You can shower after me, if you want?"

"Yes, sounds like a plan," Roman said.

"Alright, I'll give you a shout." Mandy looked into his eyes for a second, quickening his heart rate with the desire he saw. Then she turned and walked across the living room, disappearing through the doorway that she had indicated before.

Left by himself, Roman looked around the room. He saw everything he expected to see in a living room: couch, coffee table, stereo system, flat screen TV on the wall above a fireplace. On the mantelpiece there were several photos of Mandy and her dad, as well as a couple of her with her mom, who Roman knew was now dead. There was also one of the three of them together, with Mandy looking like she was in her teens. He took a moment to look at the pictures before walking through to the kitchen, as invited.

The kitchen was spotlessly clean, too, he found once he turned the lights on. Indeed the sink and the cooker gleamed, giving him the impression that the house was always maintained to this standard, and hadn't simply been cleaned ahead of his visit.

Roman opened the refrigerator in the hope of finding a water filter jug. Sure enough, there was one. The fridge was stacked, and he saw that there were even four beers in there. Mandy had previously told him that she didn't drink beer, so she had to have bought them especially for him. He loved that thoughtful side of her that he was starting to notice often. She seemed like a real treasure, so he told himself not to blow the chance he had with her.

One of the kitchen units had a windowed door, showing him that it was where Mandy kept her glasses. He took one out and poured himself a glass of water, then put the water jug back in the fridge. He closed the door without taking anything snack on, deciding to save himself for the pizza that she was going to order.

Needing to wait for Mandy to finish in the bathroom, Roman took his glass of water through to the living room and made himself comfortable on the couch. He thought about turning on the TV. After all, she had told him to make himself at home, and the remote was on the coffee table. Instead, he decided to text Seth, who had asked to be kept informed about how the date of sorts went.

_Hey, man. I'm at Mandy's place. Had a good day at the sandwich shop. Got on well with her dad. You were right, she's shy of moving too fast. Got to play it carefully._

A reply came back almost immediately.

_Seth Rollins: Great to hear. Yes, play the long game. Let things go at her pace. Have a good night._

Smiling, Roman typed out a reply.

_Will do. I'll call you tomorrow on my way to the airport._

About ten minutes later, Mandy's voice came from upstairs. "Roman! You can use the shower now if you want! I've put some fresh towels in the bathroom for you!"

"Thanks! I'm coming!" Roman called back as he got up off the couch. He made his way upstairs, hearing a hairdryer start up.

Reaching the top of the stairs, he saw the bathroom at the far end of the short landing. Mandy's bedroom door was closed. He proceeded into the bathroom, finding it steamy following her shower. Two fresh towels were sitting on the closed toilet lid. As with the rest of the house, the room was spotlessly clean.

If he had been at home or alone in a hotel room, Roman might have taken his time in the shower. He liked to savour hot water on his body. But on this occasion, he got himself washed as quickly as possible, using the body wash that Mandy had left on the little shelf fixed to the wall.

When he was done, Roman dried himself off, giving his hair a once over. It would have to finish drying by itself. Feeling refreshed, he got dressed and made his way back downstairs.

From the bottom of the stairs, walking towards the living room meant walking towards the kitchen as well. Mandy came out of there, carrying two glasses of wine. Her appearance stopped him in his tracks. She was wearing white shorts that were very short, showing off her incredible legs, and a red top that enhanced and showed off her cleavage. She had also put on matching bright red lipstick. His heart could have stopped right then and there and he would have found it understandable. She looked unbelievably hot.

"You okay?" she asked, showing some concern.

"I'm great. It's just, you look stunning. Really stunning."

"Thank you," Mandy said, her cheeks starting to turn pink. "You do too. I love that wet hair look on you."

Roman almost asked how she had seen it before, until his brain engaged and he realised she had seen it every time he came out to wrestle a match on television. "Thank you," he said, still feeling blown away by her beauty.

Mandy led him into the living room. Roman saw that a menu for a pizza delivery company had appeared on the table.

"I was thinking we could order food in, then after we eat, we could put some music on and uh... cuddle and make out?" she said awkwardly as she put the two wine glasses on the coffee table, her cheeks turning redder by the second. "I'm sorry I sound so awkward. Honestly? I've only ever been in one relationship, and I was young. I'm an introvert, so I spend my time playing poker and streaming, not out clubbing and stuff where I might meet guys."

Roman stepped up to her and gave her a tender little peck on the lips. He got a nose full of some delightful perfume. "Mandy, you don't have to apologise to me, or feel awkward. I think we both felt the connection that night, when we first met. I'm not here to rush things. Whatever pace you're comfortable with, I'm comfortable with."

"That makes me so happy," Mandy said quietly. She took both of his hands and held them. "You're right, I did feel that connection. It was like nothing I've ever experienced. Like, our eyes met and I just... I don't know how to describe it."

"You don't have to describe it. I felt it too," he said, and they kissed again. The truth was, he felt like he was already in love with her. It wasn't yet the time to say that, though.

"I've never felt anything like it before," she said softly.

"Neither have I," Roman said, touching a hand to her cheek. They kissed again, then Roman let her move away.

"So, what kind of pizza do you like?" Mandy asked as she sat down and leaned forward to pick up the menu.

Roman sat down beside her. "Truly, I'll eat anything. Order whatever you'd like. Although if you get pineapple on it, I'm out of here."

Mandy laughed. "I actually like pineapple on pizza."

"At least I know," Roman said, feigning to get up and leave. They both laughed.

"What about a meat feast with extra cheese?" she suggested.

"Sounds great," Roman said, trying his best to sound relaxed. He could sense that Mandy was nervous. She was acting excitable and eager to please, rather than what he wanted, which was for her to relax.

Mandy got on the phone to the pizza company and put the order in, adding some chicken strips to it. When she was done, she ended the call and got up straight away.

"I'll put some music on," she said, going over to the sound system. She used a cable to connect her phone to it, and put on some romantic song that Roman didn't recognise. She set the volume quite low.

"Okay. Is the wine good for you, Roman? I have beer if you'd prefer that?"

"Relax," Roman said gently, looking her in the eye. "Just come and sit with me."

"God, I'm making myself look an idiot, aren't I?" Mandy said as she walked back to the couch and set down.

"No. You're nervous. It's understandable, but you don't need to be. Let's both chill out until the food comes. Why don't you tell me how you got started with live streaming?"

Having something simple to talk about seemed to settle Mandy down. They chatted away about it for half an hour, with Roman learning not only about her motivations for getting into streaming, but also about how it worked.

The pizza arrived, and they continued chatting away while eating it. The topic of conversation shifted to Roman's not too distant recovery from leukaemia, and his history with the disease. Hearing his story brought tears to Mandy's eyes a couple of times, which wasn't exactly what he was going for on a romantic evening. But it did show him what a warm heart she had, and that was important.

"More wine?" Mandy asked when she returned from taking the empty pizza and chicken strip boxes out to the kitchen.

"I'm good, thank you," Roman said.

She came back over to the couch and sat down. Roman could tell she was thinking the same as him, that it was time to move on from chatting. To her credit, she took the initiative. Putting her hands on his cheeks, she kissed him fully on the lips.

"Mmmm," Roman moaned in delight as they started smooching. It was everything he had imagined it would be. Simply kissing a girl had never blown his mind before, but with Mandy it totally did. She was unreal.

Gently, Roman pushed Mandy back so she was lying down. He went with her, as they kissed the whole time.

Mandy's arms went around his neck, stopping him from pulling away if he tried, which of course he had no intention of doing anyway.

"Roman?" she gasped in between kisses.

"What?" he asked gruffly.

"I'm not going to be ready for sex, but I want you to stay the night."

"You don't have to ask me twice," he said, before going right back to kissing her.


	10. Chapter 10

"It's a shame you have to leave so early," Mandy said to Roman. They were standing just inside her front door, embracing each other.

"I know. I wish I didn't have to, trust me," Roman said, kissing her on the forehead.

"But you'll miss your flight otherwise," she said, resigning herself to his departure. "I had such a good night, and morning. I wish we could stay here for days and not go out at all."

"Trust me, me too," he said tiredly. Apart from everything else, getting up at 5am two days in a row when he wasn't working was a long way from ideal.

"Roman?" Mandy said cautiously.

"What's up?"

"Do we, like, consider ourselves dating now? I'm so hopeless with all of this kind of thing, like I said last night."

"I'd say last night was a very successful date. So, yeah, I'd say we're dating," Roman smiled.

"I'm so happy!" Mandy beamed.

Her inexperience and excitement was endearing to Roman, who couldn't have stopped smiling if he wanted to. But sadly, he had to get his ass back to New York and check in for his flight. "I'm really happy too, babe. I've got to go, though."

"Aww," Mandy pouted. "You'll make sure you call me later so I know you've landed safely?"

"Of course," he promised.

"I wish we could talk all night, but I'm going to have to stream. If you don't do it regularly, your audience drops off like crazy. Maybe I'll just do a couple of hours, then call you?"

"Mandy, I don't want you to stop streaming on my account. It's what you love doing, just like wrestling is for me. Stream as much as you want. I'll probably watch some of it, and think what a lucky guy I am."

"You say the most amazing things," she said adoringly, her cheeks reddening at his flattery. "I can't wait to see you Friday. I'm going to book us the nicest hotel room I can find. I'm picturing one with a jacuzzi in it."

"Sounds incredible," he said, meaning it. "I'll chat to you later, okay?"

"Okay. I'll miss you," Mandy said, kissing him on the lips.

He replied with a kiss of his own, before tearing himself away. "I'll miss you too," he said as they shared a final look. To Roman, she looked like the most beautiful woman in the world bar none. He left the house and walked to his car with that special feeling in his heart that only came with a new relationship. It had a been a long time since he felt so happy.

Standing in the doorway in her fluffy white bathrobe, Mandy waved to him. Roman waved back and got into the rental Audi. As delightful as the time spent with her had been, it made it so hard to leave. He had to mentally force himself to start the engine and back out of the driveway.

Once he was on the road, the sadness at leaving soon faded. The only thing his mind had time for were the memories of the day and night he had spent with his new girlfriend. Yes, he told himself proudly, that was what Mandy was now.

The previous night, Roman had promised to call Seth when he was on the way to the airport and tell him more about how things had gone. At the time, he hadn't exactly thought about how early the journey to the airport was going to be made. The call was going to have to wait until later.

* * *

Later ended up being nearly two hours later. By then, Roman was checked in for his flight and sitting in the waiting area at the gate. His call to Seth was answered after a few rings.

"Hey. How did it go?" Seth said.

"Hey, man. Yeah, it went really well. I took your advice and let Mandy dictate the pace."

"Good move. So, details?"

Roman wasn't sitting near anyone, but he still kept his voice down. "She invited me to stay the night. I slept with her, but I didn't sleep with her, if you know what I mean."

"Yeah, I get you," Seth said. "You knew she wasn't going to rush into sex, though. What did happen?"

"Pretty much everything but," Roman said, glancing around to make sure no one was eavesdropping. "A whole lot of making out, last night and this morning. This morning I got a hand job too, and I had a couple of fingers in."

"Couldn't have asked for much more than that," Seth said, obviously smiling. "What was she like?"

"She's shy, but it was really good. I'm in the middle of an airport, so I'll leave it there. But I wanted to let you know how well it went."

"I'm pleased for you, brother."

"Thanks," Roman smiled. "What about you? How are you and Becks?"

"We're good. Nothing special to report. She's in the shower at the moment."

"Well, stop talking to me and get in there with her," Roman said with a laugh.

"Maybe I will. Talk to you later."

With that, Seth ended the call. Roman was about to put his phone away, but he noticed the icon in his notification bar to indicate that a WhatsApp message was waiting for him. He pulled down the notification bar and saw that the message was from Mandy.

Roman tapped to open the message, and his heart nearly stopped. He was looking at a selfie of his girl. She was wearing bright red lipstick and pouting slightly. Her gorgeous cleavage was shown off to perfection by a black lace bra. Underneath, she had written the simplest of captions.

_Miss you. xxx_

Roman sent a heart eyes emoji, then typed out a quick message of his own.

_Gorgeous. Picture nearly killed me. I miss you too. xx_

* * *

Upon arriving back in Orlando, Roman had booked an Uber for his journey home. While booking the trip, he had amused himself by imagining that the company probably had a statue of him somewhere at their headquarters, thanks to how much money he spent with them.

As promised, it was time to call Mandy and let her know that he had landed safely. He called her number, only to be frustrated when it rang through to voicemail.

Before Roman had much of a chance to wonder why she wasn't answering, she called back, apparently having only just missed his call.

"Hey," he said warmly when he answered.

"Hi! Sorry, I'm just making myself some lunch. I didn't quite get to my phone in time. How was your flight?"

"It was uneventful, which is pretty much the best you can ask for. I spent most of it thinking about what you sent me," Roman said, selecting his words carefully in case the driver was listening in.

"Oh, did you?" Mandy asked innocently. "If I knew you would like it that much, I would have sent more."

"I'm not going to try and stop you," Roman said with a smile.

"Noted," Mandy giggled.

"So, how have you been spending your morning?" he asked.

"I went to the gym for an hour, then I spent the rest of it cleaning the house."

Roman laughed. "Are you serious? Mandy, your house was spotless last night."

"Yes, and that's how it stays that way. That's what happens when you're raised by parents who have a sandwich shop. You have cleaning and hygiene properly drilled into you."

"You're not kidding," he said, shaking his head. Personally, he was happy to pay a local woman to come to his place once a week and clean it for him. "What's your afternoon looking like? Streaming?"

"Yeah. I'll be going live after lunch. Will you be able to watch?"

"I'll jump on later," he promised. "I've got to get all my stuff washed, and pack my cases for the next circuit. But once that's done, I'll watch you for a while."

"I'll look out for your name in chat, Joe," Mandy giggled.

"Now I'm wondering if you've ever had a nickname, if you're going to use mine."

"Oh, god," Mandy groaned.

Roman laughed, realising that there was indeed a nickname, and she was embarrassed by it. "Go on," he said. "I want to know what it is."

"Ugh," Mandy sighed. "At school, people called me Peach. They said I looked like Princess Peach from the Mario games."

Roman laughed loudly. "That's hilarious. Peach it is."

"I shouldn't have mentioned it," Mandy grumbled.

"There are worse things than being nicknamed after a beautiful video game princess," Roman pointed out.

"I guess so," Mandy admitted.

They chatted for another few minutes, before she had to go because her lunch was finished cooking.

Roman got home and spent some time washing clothes, packing cases and doing some other menial tasks. After having something to eat, he settled down on his couch and pulled up the Twitch app on his iPad. Mandy was featured on the front page again. He tapped on her stream to open it.

When the stream appeared full screen, Roman saw his girl sitting there in her gaming chair, wearing a blue PokerStars tee, looking like an absolute meal. As often seemed to be the case, there was chillhop music playing in the background.

"Nice," Mandy said.

It was obvious what she was talking about. On the poker table she was currently featuring for her audience, she had a pair of eights. The flop was on the table: three, five, eight. Three eights was currently the best possible hand, Roman worked out.

Looking at the chat, Roman saw that it wasn't scrolling too quickly. He decided to type in a message, hoping that she would see it. She already knew what his username was. For obvious reasons, he couldn't mention or allude to their budding relationship.

_Hi, Mandy. How is the stream going so far?_

His luck was in, for Mandy was currently waiting for an opponent to act. While doing so, she was looking at the chat. "Oh, hey, Joe!" she said, beaming. "It's going pretty good. We busted out of the Daily 22, but we've got big stacks in another couple of tournaments. We'll be registering more soon."

She then read a message from someone else, whose message had been much more negative. "Why do I accept subs after winning the WSoP? Dude, I have a prize draw every month where someone wins a thousand dollars. All you have to do to be entered is watch thirty hours of the stream. So, I'm giving away a lot more than I'm making, thank you."

You tell him, girl, Roman thought. Her prize draw for her viewers was new to him. He was proud of her for doing it. A grand would probably make a huge difference to whoever won it.

Mandy's opponent in the current hand folded to her, giving her the win. She looked again at the chat.

"The virus is getting out of control in China. Won't be long before it gets here," she read. "Well, I don't know about that. I've seen people mention a virus in chat a few times now. I think it's one thing for it to spread a bit in China, but that doesn't mean it's going to come here. Even if it does, with the health care and stuff we have, it won't be a big deal. Every couple of years there's something that's supposedly going to kill us all. Last time, it was Ebola. Bottom line? Don't worry about it. There's always some bullshit that the media want to sensationalise."

Roman agreed with her, not giving it any further thought.


	11. Chapter 11

_Mandy Rose: Hi! I've just arrived. Can you meet me? xxx_

The message made Roman smile. With WWE organising Mandy still being considered a guest star, she wasn't governed by the same rules regarding call time that he and the rest of the regular roster were. The differing rules had left him waiting for a couple of hours backstage for her to show up.

It felt like forever since he had left her place that morning, after they had spent the night together. In fact, it had only been less than a day and a half, and they had spent a lot of that time messaging each other. Glad that the wait was almost over, he typed out a reply to her text.

_Hey! Yes, I can meet you. I'll head to catering now. See you there. xx_

He wasted no time doing just that, getting up straight away and leaving the locker room. None of his colleagues in there knew there was anything going on between him and Mandy, a fact which he was perfectly fine with for now. Only Seth knew the truth, and Roman knew he wouldn't tell anyone.

On his way to catering, Roman spotted an empty office nearby. He took a moment to open the door and confirm that the room was indeed empty.

"Perfect," he muttered, proceeding to the arranged meeting place.

After fixing himself a coffee, Roman went and sat down at an empty table. It took Mandy longer than he had expected to arrive - nearly ten minutes. He figured out why right away when he saw her. Unlike the previous week, she must have brought her outfit for the show in a travel case, which was a much better idea than wearing it all day. She must have gone to the women's locker room to drop off her case. For now, she was wearing grey sweat pants and a matching top, with her hair in a simple ponytail. As ever, she looked mind-blowingly hot.

Spotting him straight away, Mandy smiled broadly and came over to his table. "Hey! It feels like ages since I saw you," she said, keeping her voice low as she sat down opposite him.

"I was thinking the same. You look gorgeous."

"I really don't," Mandy giggled. "But you look great. It's so hard not to kiss you right now."

"I've got a solution to that problem," Roman said, feeling his heart rate quickening at the prospect.

"Oh?" Mandy said, raising an eyebrow. There was a gleam of excitement in her eyes.

"Back the way you just came, there's an empty office a couple of doors away. I'll meet you in there."

"Oh, okay," Mandy said, looking excited about the covert ops. "You go, I'll follow in a minute."

Roman nodded. He picked up his coffee and left catering. Out in the hallway, he made sure that no one was paying attention to him, and slipped into the office.

Moving out of sight of the window in the door, he sipped his coffee while waiting for Mandy to show up. Every second seemed like an hour, so eager was he to have her in his arms, to kiss those fulsome lips.

The door opened, and Mandy snuck in, looking like she was about to steal something.

"Hey," she breathed, walking over to him.

"Hey," he replied. No more words were necessary. He took her in his arms and they started smooching. It felt like a relief as well as a delight to kiss her again after what felt like so long.

"I missed you so much," Mandy gasped in between kisses.

"I missed you too. I'm going to hate being on the road this week without you."

As they continued kissing, Mandy slipped a hand down the front of his pants. He was already hard for her.

"Don't think about the week, think about now. In fact, think about later, when we share the hotel room I've booked. As promised, it has a jacuzzi."

Roman had moved on to kissing the side of her neck. "Sounds amazing. I can't wait."

They spent a few minutes in the office, before reluctantly leaving in case someone walked in on them.

"We'll continue that later," Mandy said. "We can get a ride to the hotel together, right?"

"Yeah, we can," Roman promised. "Drop me a message if you want to run through your lines for tonight, and I'll come find you."

"Thank you. You're the best," Mandy said with another of her dazzling smiles.

"I do try," he chuckled.

* * *

The segment that Mandy was to feature in on that night's Smackdown episode began with Heavy Machinery doing a backstage interview with Kayla Braxton. They talked about their rivalry with Dolph Ziggler and Robert Roode, which had recently gotten started.

At the end of the interview, Otis and Tucker walked away from Kayla. Unusually, the camera panned to follow the wrestlers instead of remaining focussed on the interviewer.

From the opposite direction, Mandy Rose walked into the shot. Dressed in a beautiful light red dress, she was carrying a huge ham on a platter. Out in the arena, there was a small cheer from some of the fans, who sensed immediately what kind of angle they were going to get.

"Hi, Otis," Mandy said sweetly.

"Hello, Mandy," Otis replied in his familiar, odd voice.

"You saved me from King Corbin last week. I wanted to say thank you, so I brought you this."

"You brought me a ham as a gift?" Otis asked, looking blown away to receive something from such a sexy lady. He also eyed the meat hungrily.

"I did. I hope you enjoy it." Flashing him a smile, Mandy handed over the platter and walked away.

Otis watched her leave, looking like he was swooning big time. Meanwhile, Tucker looked a little suspicious, possibly doubting her motives.

* * *

Roman was happy that Mandy hadn't asked him to be there to watch her segment in person this week. He understood why she had felt like she needed the moral support for her first one, but she had to stand on her own feet if she wanted to perform in WWE. The only downside was the fact that he had to wait until they met up after the show to compliment her on her work.

When Mandy walked into the parking garage, Roman was struck once more by her ability to make any outfit look sexy. She was back dressed in the grey sweatpants from earlier, and presumably the matching top was hidden under the black coat she was wearing. A pair of black leather gloves completed the look.

"Hey!" Mandy cried. "How are you doing? Your match looked pretty damn physical."

"I'm fine. Nothing a jacuzzi can't take care of," Roman assured her with a knowing smile.

"Is that right?" she smiled. "What do we do? Get an Uber?"

"Nope. I've organised one of the WWE SUVs for us. Your car awaits," Roman said, motioning to a nearby vehicle that already had its engine running. A driver was standing waiting, keeping a respectful distance until they needed him.

"Even better," Mandy smiled. "Vince would have still been providing my transport, but I asked him not to anymore. Since I'm going to be working regularly, I don't want the other girls to dislike me because I'm getting special treatment."

Reaching the SUV, Roman stopped and looked at her while their driver loaded their cases into it.

"What?" she asked, smiling self-consciously.

"You have a good mind for this business, Mandy. That's something that simply can't be taught to some people. But you have it."

"Thank you," she said, seeming kind of surprised. "I don't know what to say to that."

As they got into the vehicle, Roman found himself thinking that it was a real shame Mandy wasn't a wrestler. Even more so that she was probably only going to have a role in WWE for a month or two, until the angle with Otis was played out.

"Speaking of a mind for the business, I did have an idea I wanted to run by you," Mandy said once they were both in the SUV.

"Go on," he said in an encouraging tone as the driver started pulling out of the parking garage.

"I was thinking that once the storyline has developed a bit more, Otis could call me his Peach. It sounds like the kind of thing he would say."

Roman grinned. "I thought you didn't like being called Peach?"

"I don't. But it's about what works on the show, right?"

"Right," Roman nodded. "I think it's a good idea. You should pitch it to Otis and whoever your agent is next week."

"Okay, I'll do that. I'm having so much fun with this, Roman. It's going to suck when it's over."

"I know," he said sympathetically. "But keep on making a good impression and you never know, Vince might find something else for you."

"You think so?" she asked excitedly.

"I'm just saying don't rule out the possibility. If Vince likes you, that's pretty much all that matters in WWE. Nothing happens here that's not ultimately his decision."

"Okay," Mandy said thoughtfully.

Much as Roman wanted to support her in her run with WWE, he liked to take his mind off work when he left shows. It helped him to unwind. For that reason, he changed the subject. "So, I'm thinking some room service food and a bottle of wine might go nicely with a night in an expensive hotel room."

"Mmm," Mandy purred, looking at him with desire in her eyes. "That sounds amazing. And I think maybe you could use a massage after such a long, physical match. I happen to be very good at massages."

"Oh, really? I'm going to have to put that claim to the test. If you're as good at massaging as I am at kissing, it's going to be a good night."

Mandy had to laugh at the audacity, which had of course been his intention. "That's a big claim, Joe. I think you should prove yourself."

Since she had deliberately used his nickname, Roman decided to use hers. Who knew, maybe it might help her to like it after all? "Okay, Peach, I will," he said quietly.

They moved closer to each other, and Roman put an arm around her shoulders. Her hands went to his cheeks, and they started kissing each other passionately. Roman had never enjoyed kissing someone so much in his life as he did with Mandy. Even better, there was whole night of it ahead for them.


	12. Chapter 12

Roman awakened feeling well rested and on top of the world. It was no surprise, given his surroundings. He was in possibly the most luxurious hotel suite - for it was a suite, not a room, as Mandy had described it - that he had ever stayed in. He was lying in an impossibly comfy bed, relaxed and unwound to the fullest extent after a night of jucuzzis and massages. He had been truly spoiled by Mandy on a night that would live long in his memory.

Being pampered wasn't the only thing he would remember about the night, either. The sexual side of their relationship had also continued its progression. Moving on from hand action, they had given each other oral pleasure. It hadn't been the best head Roman had ever gotten, but he didn't hold that against Mandy at all. He knew she was inexperienced, and with that in mind she had done fine. When his turn had come to pleasure her, she had enjoyed it to an extent that made him wonder if it was the first time anyone had ever gone down on her.

The next step for them would be sex. Roman wasn't going to do anything to push the issue. Despite her inexperience and shyness, she was no doubt keen to move things forward.

"Hey," Mandy groaned in the way that was only possible in the first moments after waking up. She was lying on her front, head turned towards him, one eye open.

Lying on his back, Roman looked at her and smiled. "Hey. Sleep well?"

"Yeah, I think so. Did you?"

"Yeah. I was just thinking that I can't remember ever feeling comfier than I am now."

"Mmmm," Mandy sighed in appreciation of his comment.

A couple of minutes of contented silence went by before Mandy slowly rolled over to lie on her back. She took Roman's left hand in her right and held it, resting on the blanket. "I'm hungry," she announced.

"How about breakfast in bed?" Roman suggested.

"That's not going to take much persuasion."

"I've got the room service menu on my side," Roman said, leaning over to pick it up from his nightstand.

"Thank you, I'll have a look in a minute," Mandy said when he handed it to her. She had picked up her phone, and had just opened Twitter.

Roman knew already that she did that first thing every morning to see what news there was in the world. For his part, he picked up his phone and went onto one of the more popular news websites.

"Well," they both said at exactly the same time. It made them share a laugh.

"Well what?" Mandy asked.

"No, you first," he insisted.

"I saw you were trending, so I took a look. Seems like our secret might be out already."

"What?" Roman asked in annoyance. He wasn't annoyed that people might know he was with the gorgeous and talented Mandy Rose, obviously. It was the complete lack of privacy that came with his place in the public eye that pissed him off, as he had already explained to her.

Mandy showed him her phone. On the screen was a photo of them both. Roman recognised the lobby of the hotel they were in. The picture was from the night before, when they had been arriving. A discreet fan had to have taken it, since he hadn't spotted anyone doing it. Whoever it was had caught them in the perfect moment as far as giving the game away was concerned. He remembered exactly what had been happening in the moment. They had been laughing at something stupid that he had said. The way they were looking at each made it pretty obvious that there was more than friendship between them.

"No one is going to tell me they're not dating," Mandy read from the tweet that the picture was attached to. "What a beautiful couple they make."

"Are people agreeing?" Roman asked.

"Yep," Mandy said. "Pretty much everyone is. There's hardly any negativity, which is remarkable for Twitter."

Roman grunted a laugh. "Practically unheard of for Twitter. I guess we don't have to worry about trying to keep our privacy anymore."

"No. But it does mean we don't have to sneak around. That's good, right? You're not ashamed of me?"

"Ashamed of you?" Roman asked incredulously. "Mandy, I'm as far from ashamed of you as it's possible to get. Like I said before, I just don't like my personal life being broadcasted to the masses on Twitter. You are right that it's good in a way that we don't have to be secretive now."

"Good, because I want my man to be proud of me," she said, cuddling up to him.

He kissed her lightly on the lips. "I am."

"Mmm," Mandy purred as he put an arm around her and cuddled her. "So what did you see at the same time as I saw that picture?"

"Oh yeah," Roman said, unlocking his phone again. The news page that he had been on was still on the screen. "Looks like that virus people keep talking about in your stream chat is here now."

"Damn," Mandy said, looking at the screen. She read aloud from it. "Corona virus cases confirmed in Washington, New York, Texas and Illinois."

"That's not good," Roman opined.

"No. They'd better get those people isolated before it has a chance to start spreading."

"I hope so," Roman said, starting to feel concerned about the situation for the first time.

"Are you okay?" Mandy asked, noticing his change in demeanour.

Aware that she wasn't new to WWE, Roman had to assume she was aware of his fairly recent battle with leukaemia. It was hardly a secret to wrestling fans. "You remember when I had time off for cancer treatment?"

"Oh god! Of course!" she exclaimed, immediately looking angry with herself for not thinking of it. "Your treatment will have left you with a compromised immune system. You're going to have to be very careful if that thing starts spreading."

"Yes. I'll definitely have to keep an eye on it. But let's not let it ruin our morning. Where's that room service menu?"

* * *

Pitching ideas in relation to her on-screen character was going to be something new for Mandy. To make matters worse, she was going to have to do it to Vince McMahon himself, since she and Otis had been summoned to see him.

"I've got an idea that I'd like to put forward," Mandy said to Otis. They were walking together, on their way to Vince's office.

"Go for it," Otis said pleasantly. When he wasn't in character, his voice wasn't weird at all. It was actually the ordinary voice that seemed out of place, Mandy thought to her amusement.

"It's not a huge thing, but I'm hoping he'll go for it."

"It's usually about fifty/fifty," Otis said. "Either he's in a mood to listen, or he isn't."

Great, Mandy thought. It was hardly the most encouraging thing she had ever heard in her life. She supposed all she could do was try her luck. When all was said and done, suggesting that Otis could call her Peach was hardly going to require a rewrite of the entire storyline.

They reached Vince's office, and Otis knocked the door.

"Come in!" Vince called loudly.

"After you," Otis said politely.

"Thanks," Mandy smiled. She opened the door and walked into the office. Vince wasn't the only person in the room. Dolph Ziggler was there also.

"Hello, Mandy, Otis," Vince said cheerfully. He was sitting behind his desk, with Dolph standing in front of it.

"Hi," Mandy smiled. She hadn't met Dolph in person before, so she offered her hand to him. "Nice to meet you. I'm Mandy."

"Dolph. Good to meet you," he said, smiling and shaking her hand.

"Right, I've got a lot to get through tonight, so let's get on with it," Vince said. "The reason Dolph is here is that we're putting him into the angle. Next week, Otis is going to ask Mandy out on a date. But when the date happens, Mandy will receive a text from Otis at the last minute to say that he's not coming. Dolph will show up instead, and have dinner with Mandy."

"Why?" Otis asked, obviously disappointed that his character wasn't going to be the one to get the girl.

"Because it will make the payoff better when you guys actually get together," Vince said. "You see, in time it will come to light that Otis didn't send the text. There will be footage leaked by the hacker showing someone else getting hold of Mandy's phone and sending the message deliberately to trash things. It'll probably be Sonya, since we're now pushing her as a heel."

"I like it," Ziggler said. "But only if the payoff with Otis and Mandy happens. The fans are getting behind it already. I don't think this is one to give them a bad ending on."

"Totally agree," Otis said.

Vince looked at Mandy, who so far had said nothing. "And you?"

"I like the idea. There was something I was going to suggest, if I can?" she ventured, speaking more timidly than she had intended.

"Let's hear it," Vince said.

"Alright," Mandy said, trying to find her confidence. "I had a nickname when I was at school. People called me Peach. I was thinking Otis could call me Peach, once things have advanced a bit further."

"Try it," Vince commanded Otis.

"Hello, my gorgeous Peach," Otis said in his character's voice.

"Yes! I like it!" Vince proclaimed. And so it was decided. Mandy's idea hadn't been for her to be referred to as Otis's Peach, but it seemed like that was what was now going to happen. At least her idea hadn't been thrown out, she reasoned.

There was a brief conversation about what was to come on that night's show, then Vince dismissed everyone.

"Oh, Mandy," Vince said, stopping her before she made it to the door.

"Yes?" she asked, remaining in the office while Otis and Ziggler departed.

"How are you finding appearing on Smackdown?"

"I'm loving it. I was only saying, uh, the other day that I'm having so much fun," Mandy enthused. She had just managed to stop herself dropping Roman's name, in case she might have been asked to explain.

"That's good. I think you've really got the look of a star, and you've taken to WWE like a natural. I'm wondering if we might look at working out a longer deal, to keep you around after the angle with Otis."

Holy shit, Mandy thought. The boss was suggesting exactly what she had hoped for. She was shrewd enough to realise that the idea being pitched to her put her in a bit of a position of strength. "I'd be open to talking about it for sure. If the angle was the right one, I'd like to think we could do a deal."

"Our writing team are exploring creative options. I expect there will be something fairly concrete on the table within the next few weeks. I propose we speak again then and discuss it in detail."

"Sounds good. Thanks, Vince," Mandy smiled.

He nodded, bringing an end to the conversation. Mandy made sure not to hurry out of the office, but she couldn't wait to tell Roman the news. It now seemed highly likely that she would be sticking around in WWE. Exciting times lay ahead.


	13. Chapter 13

"Mandy," her voice whispered. The saxophone music that was now familiar to Roman began to play, and the ten minute countdown to the start of her stream appeared on the screen of his iPad, along with the picture of her modelling her WSoP bracelet. He had found a quiet room to sit in backstage before Sunday's live event. Aware that Mandy always did a long stream on Sunday's, he had decided to show up for the first hour or so.

While he waited for the countdown to elapse, Roman killed time on his phone, looking at the latest sports news. There wasn't much of significance going on, he learned.

The stream's intro music, now in Roman's head for the rest of the night, stopped playing. He immediately put down his phone, diverting his attention to the iPad in time to see his girl appear full screen. She was wearing a pink PokerStars tee and matching lip gloss. As ever, she looked hot beyond belief.

"Hey, everyone. Hope you're all well?" Mandy said. Her voice came through Roman's earbuds as if she was sitting right there with him. Whatever microphone she used had to be a very good one. In the background there was some relatively mellow drum and bass track playing.

Roman looked at the chat, where greetings started flowing in at quite a frantic pace. Her audience seemed as pleased to see her as he was. Renewed subscriptions also started coming in straight away.

"Hi, Ricky. Hi, Doom. Hey, Kim," Mandy said, calling out some names she recognised in the chat.

Roman saw someone ask her if she was dating Roman Reigns. "That didn't take long," he muttered, wondering how Mandy would respond if she saw the question and chose to acknowledge it.

"Are you dating Roman Reigns?" Mandy read only seconds later. "How did I know that would be today's hot question? Yes, Roman and I are dating. That's all I'm going to say about it because we like our privacy to be respected, so please don't ask anything about it again. If people show up later and ask, I'll leave you guys to tell them in chat, okay?"

Roman smiled, feeling happy with her answer. He was glad that she agreed with his stance as far as trying to maintain privacy was concerned. There had been a look in her eyes when she had said they were dating that he had picked up on. The love had been there for all to see, and it warmed his heart.

"Before we get down to playing some poker, a reminder that we're going to have this month's giveaway during today's stream," Mandy was saying. "Someone is going to win a thousand bucks. For anyone who's new to the channel, all you have to do is watch thirty hours of the stream in a month, and your username will automatically be entered into the draw. You must have your Twitch account linked to a PokerStars account, because that's where the money will be sent. I'll also be gifting out some tournament entry tickets, as with every stream."

Roman found himself considering that the tournaments Mandy played in often had large buy-ins. It told him that she had been making good money playing poker and streaming before she had dropped the Main Event win. Hell, that event required a ten thousand dollar buy-in itself. He wondered if he was starting to learn enough by watching her play that he could have a go at it too. It was something he would like to try.

"Did you eat all of that cake Otis gave you?" Mandy read. A big smile appeared on her face. "I did! It was delicious! He's got great taste."

Her answer made Roman smile. It had to be tricky for her to talk about things that happened on-screen in WWE without exposing the business, but she had managed it.

On the previous Smackdown episode, Otis had returned Mandy's gift of a large ham with a gift of an equally large cake, which he had presented to her on a platter in a backstage segment. He had then asked her out on a date. To the delight of the fans, Mandy had said yes, setting the Saturday night prior to the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view as the time, allowing him to choose the place. The scene at the restaurant would be pre-recorded of course, and would be shown as a segment on the pay-per-view, along with some of Tucker helping Otis to prepare for the biggest night of his life. Roman looked forward to seeing it all.

"It'll go straight to your hips," Mandy read. She laughed at the joke about her eating the cake, and fired back with one of her own. "Okay, that's your ass banned."

A subscription notification appeared on the screen. It was greeted by a different kind of audio cue to the one Roman had heard before. This one was a kind of fanfare sound. He saw why right away. The person in question had gifted twenty subscriptions. He assumed they were randomly allocated to viewers.

"Holy shit. Garfield11 gifted twenty subs," Mandy announced. "That takes him to an even three hundred subs gifted in the channel. Garfield, you've always been so generous over the past couple of years, and you've always been a positive part of my community. I appreciate you, man. When I get the Mandy Live meet up organised, I hope you'll come along."

Mandy Live meet up? That was news to Roman. She hadn't mentioned planning to meet her audience. It seemed to him like a bit of a risky thing to do, unless she was going to arrange some security.

"Alright, let's get down to playing some cards, shall we?" Mandy said. At the click of a mouse button, the stream changed to her familiar layout. There was already a hand in progress on the table she was featuring.

Roman settled in to watch her play, figuring he had at least an hour before he had to get ready for the show.

* * *

"All set?" Sami Zayn asked Roman.

"Yep," Roman said as he zipped up his travel case. He put it down on the floor, and was ready to leave.

The travel partners had a routine established where they didn't spend much, if any, time together at shows since they never worked matches with each other. Instead, they would do their catching up on the road.

"Who knows how long this is going to go on for," Sami said once they were outside in the hallway.

Roman looked at him blankly. "What do you mean?"

"Live events," Sami clarified. "Haven't you seen on the news? It turns out that it's in pretty much every state already. They've not been screening people at airports, or tracking down people who had contact with people who were infected."

"That doesn't sound good," Roman said with concern.

"It's not. And looking at how infectious it was in China, it's going to spread like wild fire here. They had to put millions in people into lockdown over there. The same thing is going to have to happen here. It won't be long before sporting event are forced to happen behind closed doors, or be cancelled altogether."

"Come on, you don't really think that's going to happen," Roman said, looking at him sceptically as they walked out into the parking garage.

"I absolutely do," Sami insisted. "I'll tell you what, fifty bucks says Wrestlemania either happens without fans or doesn't happen at all."

Reaching the rental car they were sharing, Roman stood and eyed his friend carefully, trying to figure out if there was some kind of rib going on. He didn't see anything to suggest that there was. "You're serious right now? You think Wrestlemania is going to go down without fans. No way, man. I'll take that bet."

"Fifty bucks," Sami said confidently as they shook hands.

The exchange unnerved Roman a bit. If the virus was going to get as bad as Sami seemed to think, it would be like nothing that had happened in his lifetime. And it would be dangerous to him in particular with his compromised immune system. He decided right there and then that he was going to do some research into it when he got to his hotel room.

It was Sami's turn to drive, which meant that by their established but unspoken rules it was Roman's turn to load their cases into the trunk. When he was done, he walked around to the passenger door and got in. The engine was already on, as was the stereo system. The music wasn't loud enough to prevent Roman hearing his phone bleep to indicate that a new message had been received. It went off again, and a third time before he could get it out of his pocked. It then went off yet again while he tried to unlock it.

"Someone's popular," Sami said with a chuckle as he got the car moving.

Roman saw that the four messages were on WhatsApp, and they were from Mandy. He tapped on the notification to open the app, and saw three photos waiting for him. All of them were selfies. The final message was a simple, yet endearing couple of sentences.

_Miss you. Thought I'd show you how my day has been. xxx_

Smiling, Roman enlarged the first picture. It was the best of the three, from his point of view. It showed Mandy smiling innocently into the camera. She had made sure that her dark blue lace bra was in the shot, along with her cleavage. It was incredibly sexy, and made him long for her. That, of course, had been her intention.

He scrolled to the second picture. It showed Mandy in her kitchen, wearing a red tee that had a hole torn in the left shoulder. It was clearly a 'do chores around the house' shirt. She was giving a peace sign to the camera, showing that she was wearing yellow rubber gloves. Her fastidious daily cleaning routine had clearly been in operation, apparently.

Scrolling to the third picture, Roman recognised the office that Mandy used for streaming. She was wearing the pink PokerStars tee that he had seen earlier. She had a simple smile on her face, but it was so beautiful. It was time for him to type out a response.

_Miss you too, Peach. All three pictures absolutely stunning._

A reply came back almost immediately. It began with an emoji that was blowing a kiss.

_Which is your favourite?_

Realising that he was supposed to answer picture number one, Roman decided not to.

_Number two._

Mandy replied with a shocked emoji.

_Really?_

Roman laughed as he typed his answer.

_Sure. Sexy ladies in underwear has never done much for me._

Mandy replied with a cow emoji and a turd emoji, clearly intending to call him out on his bullshit. It made Roman laugh to himself.

"Things are going well with you guys, then?" Sami asked from the driver's seat. Apparently he had seen at least one of the pictures.

"Yeah," Roman said, looking at his friend and smiling. "Honestly? I think I'm in love."


	14. Chapter 14

On the day of the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view, Roman had arranged to meet Mandy at the airport in Philadelphia. On the face of it, there was no reason for her to be showing up to the event, since she had no part to play on it. Her date with Otis had already been recorded on the Friday evening, to be shown during the pay-per-view. The reason she was coming was to travel back to Orlando with Roman after the pay-per-view, when she would be visiting his house for the first time.

Roman hoped that the visit would lead to them having sex for the first time. God knew he was ready for it. But he had to he cautious not to force the issue, mindful that going at her pace was still the right thing to do. In fairness, her pace wasn't exactly slow. They had already done everything but sex.

There was a surprise that he had to show to Mandy at some point, he thought. It wasn't going to happen on this visit, though. The visit to his place would be enough this time. Next time could maybe be the time to surprise her. That would be fun.

Roman's flight had gotten in an hour before Mandy's. He had grabbed a coffee and found somewhere to sit and wait where they were guaranteed to see each other. Thinking ahead, he had worn a hoodie, and had the hood up to make it a lot harder for fans to recognise him. Being hassled for autographs and pictures wasn't on his agenda.

To kill the waiting time, he decided to check the news on his phone. As usual, he began with his favourite sports news site. Depressingly, even there he couldn't get away from the world's new big deal. Corona virus was being mentioned everywhere, including an article with a headline speculating that the US could be a week or two away from cancelling sports events due to the outbreak.

"This is mental," he mumbled, shaking his head. On the flight he had just gotten off, he had noticed a couple of people wearing medical masks. He began to consider buying some for himself, realising that it might not be long before the masses started hoarding them. He decided to speak to Mandy about it when she arrived.

Eventually, he saw her walking through from baggage claim among a large group of people. She was wearing a white beanie hat and coat, with black pants and leather gloves. She stood out a mile from the other people thanks to her beauty. He removed the hood from his head and stood up to greet her. A wave and a smile helped her to spot him.

Mandy hurried over in his direction, pulling a travel case behind her. She smiled, happy to see him for obvious reasons, but he could tell that she wasn't her normal cheerful self.

"Hey. Are you okay?" he asked once she got close enough.

"Hey," Mandy said warmly. She walked into his arms and they kissed. "I'm okay. That flight was pretty scary. There was a guy next to me wearing a mask, trying his best to sit as far away from me as he could. This virus is freaking people out, including me."

"I know, me too," Roman sighed, hugging her again. "There were people on my flight wearing masks. It made me think that I ought to order some. It won't be long before people start panic buying and hoarding them, then it'll be impossible to get them."

"You're right. I think I'll order some stuff too. We can look on Amazon together when we get to the arena." Mandy shook her head, literally trying to shake off thoughts of the virus. "Anyway, it's lovely to see you. I missed you so much."

"I missed you too, Peach," Roman said. He leaned in and they kissed. The taste of her turned him on right away. The first time they had sex could not come soon enough.

"Shall we get an Uber?" she suggested.

Roman nodded, taking hold of his travel case. "Yeah, let's go."

* * *

About ten minutes after their arrival at the arena, Roman and Mandy met up again. They found an empty office to sit in so that they could enjoy each other's company somewhat apart from the hustle and bustle backstage.

"Were they surprised to see you?" Roman asked as they sat down beside each other at a table in the office. He was referring to the other women in the locker room, who wouldn't have been expecting Mandy to show up.

"Maybe a little. I think they just kind of assumed I'm here to support you. They all know we're dating now, although I haven't talked about it."

"Hopefully our business is on its way to being yesterday's news," he said.

"I think it already is. Corona was the only thing anyone was talking about."

"Yes, it was the same in our locker room. A couple of the guys were saying they don't like the idea of continuing to fly all the time. Airports are going to be prime places to catch it."

"Yes. You need to be very careful, Roman," Mandy said, looking at him with concern in her eyes. "Speaking of, let's see if there are masks available on Amazon."

They both diverted their attention to their phones, searching the popular website for medical masks.

"Limited stock available," Mandy read. "I'm going to order a load to come to my place. You should get some to yours as well."

"I'm on it," Roman assured her.

"I'm going to get gloves too. You can get big boxes of them. We have them in the sandwich shop if you remember?"

Roman looked at her. "I do remember. But why gloves?"

"The most common way to catch a virus is by getting it on your hands, then touching your face. I'm going to start wearing gloves when I go grocery shopping. Which colour do you like?"

She turned her phone to show him the screen. She had searched nitrile gloves, which had presented her with various boxes of them to choose from. He saw black ones, light blue ones, dark blue ones, green ones, pink ones. It dawned on him that Mandy spent a lot of her time wearing gloves. She had done so all day at the sandwich shop, every time she cleaned anything, and almost every time they had been outside in the cold. It made him wonder if she had a bit of a thing for it.

"Are you asking me which ones I think you'll look good in?" Roman asked, deciding to see what kind of reaction the question got.

Mandy's cheeks started to go pink. "Maybe," she admitted shyly.

"You have a thing for wearing gloves? I'm not judging here, just asking," he clarified quickly.

"Oh god," Mandy cringed in embarrassment. "Yes, I kind of do. I find them sexy, and I think it makes me look sexy when I wear them. It really turned me on when you said picture number two was your favourite the other day."

Roman had to try and remember what picture she meant. She sent him selfies every day, which he certainly wasn't going to complain about it, but it made recalling the particular one she was talking about quite tricky. Then it came to him. She had been posing in her kitchen, probably after her daily cleaning routine. And she had been wearing rubber gloves.

"It was a very sexy picture," he said. "You always look amazing, Mandy, including when you wear gloves. So if it makes you feel sexy or turns you on? Don't hold back on my account. Order the green ones."

"Really? You think I look sexy in gloves?" she asked, her excitement obvious.

"Sure," Roman smiled. "I don't think I have any in my house though, so you'll have to bring your own entertainment as far as that's concerned."

The office door opened, and John Morrison's head appeared around it. "Vince wants everyone to gather at the ring," he announced, and was gone.

"What's that about?" Mandy asked Roman.

"Whenever this happens, it's some kind of announcement that affects everyone, usually a death or something. In this case I'd bet it will be about corona. Come on, we'd better get out there."

Looking concerned, Mandy joined him in leaving the office. They met up with a bunch of their colleagues as they went out to the arena and gathered around the ring. Vince was standing in the ring, waiting for everyone to be in attendance. It took five minutes or so for them all to assemble.

"Okay, is that everyone?" Vince asked loudly, making sure they could all hear him. There were murmurs of confirmation. "Right, I'm sure by now you've all heard of the corona virus which seems to be spreading in this country. I have gotten word earlier today that the suspension of all sports events is imminent. Tonight's event is okay to go ahead, as are Raw and Smackdown next week. After that, it's possible that all arenas will be closed."

"Jesus Christ," Mandy mumbled, looking at Roman, who shook his head in disbelief.

"If and when that happens," Vince continued, "we'll be in the unfortunate position of having to tape shows at the Performance Center. It can be converted into a small arena for the purpose, so at least we won't be left unable to work."

"What about Wrestlemania?" someone called out.

"At the moment, I'm hopeful it can go ahead," Vince replied. "I'll be having meetings with the governor of Florida to discuss it, and I'll keep you all updated."

Roman looked at Mandy and she shook her head with a look on her face that said, "No chance."

She's probably right, Roman thought. And that meant he was going to owe Sami fifty bucks.

* * *

During the early stages of the Elimination Chamber show, two vignettes had been shown. One had featured Otis preparing for his date with Mandy. He had received a text from her to say she would be running late. The second vignette had shown Mandy getting ready. She had also received a text, saying that Otis would be late.

At the top of the last hour of the show, Mandy was shown sitting at a table in a restaurant, looking resplendent in a red dress. Being kept waiting didn't seem to be impressing her too much as she checked her watch.

Suddenly, a hand appeared on Mandy's shoulder. She looked up at the person in question and smiled. The audience didn't get to see who it was.

Before the main event, a final vignette was shown. It began with Otis walking into the restaurant, carrying a bunch of red roses. He looked excited for the date that was to come. But then he froze, a heart-broken look coming to his face.

The camera panned around to show Mandy sitting at her table with Dolph Ziggler. Both of them looked like they were having a great time.

Devastated, Otis dropped the roses to the floor, looking like he was about to cry.

"Oh, man. Poor Otis," Mandy said, watching backstage in the women's locker room.

"The fans are going to be pissed with that," Bayley, who happened to be sitting next to her, chuckled. "They're really into your angle."

"Shame it doesn't look like we'll have a crowd for the payoff," Mandy sighed.


	15. Chapter 15

Blue balls. There was no other way to describe what Roman was suffering with. He had hoped, indeed he had pretty much expected that he and Mandy were going to have sex when she stayed at his house for the first time. Alas, he had been out of luck again.

The night had gone great. Maybe too great, he thought on reflection. Mandy had loved his house, which was essentially a big bachelor pad. He was lucky that he had a girl who appreciated big TVs and top quality sound systems.

They had ordered in Chinese food, and settled down on the couch to watch a horror movie, since they were apparently Mandy's favourites. Between them, they had polished off a bottle of wine, which had no doubt contributed to her falling asleep with her head on his shoulder before the end of the movie.

At the end of the movie, Roman had woken her and gone up to bed with her, but the mood nor the moment had been right for sex. There would be next time, he had told himself with a sense of resignation. What really mattered was that they continued to grow closer, loving every moment they spent together. With the way things were going in the world with the corona virus situation, it looked there would be more such moments coming than they might have expected a week or two earlier.

After Elimination Chamber, only one Raw and one Smackdown episode had been able to take place in an arena, in front of an audience. Due to the corona virus outbreak, the arena where the following Raw episode had been due to take place had been shut down by the state governor, as had the one for the following Smackdown episode.

In response to the worsening situation, Vince McMahon had announced that until further notice all Raw, Smackdown and NXT episodes would be taped at the Performance Center in Orlando and broadcast in their usual time slots.

In Roman's opinion, the announcement was a good thing. It didn't totally ease his concerns, however. Mindful of his health, he was now taking the virus very seriously, and was concerned about the prospect of sharing a locker room with his colleagues. There was a growing theory that people who had the virus were contagious for up to two weeks before they showed symptoms, which meant that someone could turn up to a show with the virus and start spreading it around the locker room without realising they were doing it.

Work wasn't the only area where the virus was causing him concern. Several big hotspots of confirmed virus cases were emerging, the largest of which was in New York, where Mandy lived. The situation there looked like it was going be a disaster in a matter of weeks. Now, a couple of days since she had stayed at his place, he was genuinely concerned for his girlfriend's safety.

Just as he was thinking about Mandy, Roman's phone rang. He picked it up from his coffee table and saw her name on the screen.

"Hey," he said, answering the call.

"Roman, I'm so upset," Mandy blurted out.

"Why? What's happened?" he asked with concern.

"Dad has decided to close the sandwich shop effective immediately because of the virus. He's got a cabin out in the country. You could say he's a bit of a prepper. He's got loads of food and stuff out there. He sais he's going to lie low there until this virus stuff dies down."

"Oh," Roman said, trying to take in what she had said. "You're upset because you're not going to see him. I get that, but it might be for the best that he keeps himself safe. The older a person is, the worse the virus affects them."

"Yeah, I know," Mandy sighed. "I'm going to miss him though. Plus the shop closing upsets me. That probably sounds stupid to you, but it's our family business. Just thinking about it sitting there closed is awful."

"It doesn't sound stupid at all," he said sympathetically. "It's a terrible situation for people to be in. Honestly, I don't think it will be long before shutdowns are made mandatory anyway. Are you worried that your dad might lose the business?" Even as she asked the question, he realised how dumb it was. Mandy had recently won ten million dollars. Of course her dad wasn't going to lose the business.

"No. I mean, I would make sure to take care of it."

"Yeah, I just thought that," Roman said.

"It's all just so crap, Roman. People shut in their homes, businesses and shows closed, people dying in hospital. I hate this."

"I know, babe," Roman said, wishing they were together so that he would be able to offer more than words to take care of her. Then it occurred to him. He could do exactly that. "I've just had an idea. Shoot it down if you want, but I've got somewhere we could go to lie low, like your dad. If you wanted, I could drive up and pick you up. We could bring some of your stuff down here and ride this thing out together. New York is looking like the worst place in the country for the virus, and I'm worried about you."

"You mean you've got a cabin or something?" she asked.

"Something like that," he said, deliberately avoiding specifics.

"How would we move my stuff? That Bugatti you showed me doesn't exactly have much trunk space."

"My neighbour has a van. I'm sure he'll be okay to lend it to me for a few days."

"And you're willing to drive like eighteen hours each way to pick me up?" she asked.

"Of course," Roman said without hesitation.

"You know what? Let's do it," Mandy decided on the spur of the moment. "I'll start packing some stuff up before my stream tonight. Roman?"

"Yeah?"

"It means so much that you'll do this. With rest stops it's going to take you a day to get here at least."

"Motels are a thing," he said, smiling. "Besides, if I'm going to be locked away and isolated from the world for a while, I want to be locked away with you."

"That's true romance right there. I... can't wait to see you."

Roman got the distinct impression that she had been about to say she loved him, but had backed down. He felt the same way about her. Maybe it was just a bit early to say it to each other, he thought.

"I can't wait to see you either, Peach. I'm going to go speak to my neighbour now. I'll get on the road as soon as I can get myself ready, and I'll get as far as I can today. I'll stop at a motel somewhere, and I'll be with you tomorrow, okay?"

"I can't wait to see you. Is it bad that in such awful times like this I'm now feeling kind of excited?"

"If it is, then we're both bad because I feel excited too. I'd better go, but I'm sure I'll speak to you later."

"Okay. Can't wait to see you. I felt so down when I called you, now it's the opposite. You make me so happy, Roman."

"I'm glad," he said, feeling what could only be love warming his heart. "You make me just as happy, believe me. I'll speak to you later."

"Okay, drive safely," Mandy said.

"Will do. Bye."

"Bye, babe."

Roman ended the call and hurried out of the living room to go and speak to his neighbour.

* * *

After more than twelve hours on the road, Roman had stopped at a motel, paying fifty bucks for the night. When he had left home, he had been in half a mind to smash through the entire eighteen hour trip in one go, but after twelve hours he had known he was too tired to go much further.

The new plan was to get a few hour's sleep and set off again. He had decided that he wasn't going to let Mandy know when he was arriving, instead he would surprise her by showing up at her front door. Looking forward to her reaction was enough to put a smile on his face.

Another positive was that he didn't have to wait until the next day to see her, thanks to the fact that she was going to be streaming. He enjoyed watching the streams more than he had expected to at first. Even if the poker wasn't particularly interesting, she managed to give her audience the vibe that they were hanging out with her. The conversation and the humour were enough to make people show up, he reckoned. He could imagine her doing a stream where she just talked to the camera and interacted with people in her chat and still making a success of it.

Once he was settled into the cheap but not unpleasant motel room, he got online on his phone, for there was no wifi for his iPad, and hit up Mandy's stream by going to her account page.

When the stream loaded, Roman saw that the poker tables were on one of the five minute breaks. Mandy was talking to her audience, looking absolutely beautiful in a green PokerStars polo shirt. She was holding a big bottle of whisky up to the camera.

"Some people were asking what I'm drinking. This is Dewar's Signature whisky. It's from Scotland, and it's fantastic." She put the bottle down out of sight of the camera, then picked up a shot glass which she raised in a toast to the viewers. "Cheers."

Cheers, Roman thought, looking at the miserable bottle of water on his nightstand, wishing he could have a whisky with her.

"Are you having a bad day?" Mandy read from the chat. "Isn't everyone having bad days? The whole world is turned upside down right now. But I have someone special doing their absolute best to be there for me and keep me going, and I have you guys all here coming out to the stream. I'm lucky, and I know it. So, thank you everyone."

Roman felt extremely touched by her words. He saw his name scroll up the chat a few times from people who knew who she meant.

"Also, I need to tell you all that this is going to be my last stream for a while. I've got some corona related stuff going on. But I'll be back to streaming as soon as I can. With how bad we've been running the last few streams, maybe a break will turn my luck around?"

Roman hoped she would be able to stream when they go where there were going. It wasn't something he had considered. Time would tell, he supposed. The main thing was that they would be together, and would be safe, hopefully.


	16. Chapter 16

Let no one dare say I don't show commitment, Roman thought. It was a few minutes before one in the afternoon, and he had just parked the van on Mandy's driveway. Pretty much nineteen hours of driving it had taken him to get there, which meant it would take nineteen to get back. If that wasn't worth some serious boyfriend points, he didn't know what was.

As he had decided the previous night, he had given no notification of his arrival to Mandy. His impending knock on the door would be her first clue. Looking forward to her reaction made him smile as he got out of the van and went over to the front door.

Roman pressed the doorbell. After a few moments with no sign of a response, he pressed it again and knocked the door in case the bell didn't work. "Imagine if she's not home," he muttered to himself.

But then the door opened. Mandy stood there with her hair in a ponytail, wearing an apron and yellow rubber gloves covered in soap suds. She had been cleaning, he realised - the least surprising news ever. Her face lit up when she saw him. "Hey!" she squealed in delight.

"Hi. That was a mission," he said deadpan before allowing himself to smile broadly. "God, you look gorgeous, Peach." He said it with half a mind on the little fetish she had mentioned.

"You think so?" she asked coyly.

"Very much so." Roman leaned in and kissed her on the lips. She usually liked to put her hands on his cheeks when they kissed, but she avoided doing it with her soapy gloves.

"Come in, babe," she said after the kiss, backing off to let him in. "You really made good time. I figured I would have time to clean the place before you got here. I'm going to make you a lovely dinner tonight to say thank you for doing this for me."

"That sounds lovely," Roman said as she closed the door behind him. "But I'm doing this for both of us. The idea of us being locked down apart from each was dreadful."

"Don't. I wouldn't have been able to live like that. I've never been with anyone who made me feel like you do. To have that partially taken away from me by a lockdown, I just can't imagine it."

Roman kissed her again. "Thankfully, that's not going to happen. You mentioned dinner. What are we having?"

"I went to my local butcher, who is amazing, and he had some excellent lamb chops. I'm going to marinate them and spice them up. You'll love it, I'm sure."

"I'm sure too," Roman smiled, feeling like his stomach was about to start rumbling at the thought of it.

"I'm pretty much packed up and ready to go, with enough clothes and stuff to last me a couple of weeks," she said, leading the way through the kitchen, from where the smell of cleaning products was quite strong. "I've got a few dresses I can use for Smackdown, too. And I need to bring my computer. I hope you won't mind, but I need to continue my streaming."

"Of course I don't mind," Roman said, hoping that the internet would prove to be good enough to handle it.

"Just let me finish cleaning, then I'll properly be with you. Help yourself to coffee or anything from the fridge."

"Thanks," Roman said, smiling in amusement to himself as Mandy got back to work scrubbing the sink, which looked spotless to him already.

"What's the plan for the drive to your place?" Mandy asked. "Are we leaving today, or do you want to spend the night here? You must need a good rest."

"I promised to get back with the van as soon as I could, so I'd like to get on the road today. You don't mind spending a night at a motel, do you?"

Mandy stopped cleaning for a moment and looked at him. "I'd sleep anywhere with you." She meant it too, Roman could tell.

"Then you're going to like it when we get there," he said with a crafty smile.

"Where is there, anyway? You're being very mysterious, Mr Reigns."

"I know I am, and I will continue to be. You'll find out when we get there."

* * *

The drive back to Orlando, or rather nearly to Orlando, was finally coming to an end. If Roman never sat in a van again for the rest of his life, he would be more than happy. But for now he had the prospect of surprising Mandy with their destination to keep him going. The big moment was now close at hand.

"And here we are," he said, bringing the van to a stop.

"Here we are, what?" Mandy asked, confused. She had been enjoying looking out of her window at the large marina they had been driving past for a couple of minutes.

"This is where we'll be living. Or, I should say, that is." He pointed out of the windshield at one of the yachts.

"No," Mandy breathed, looking at him in disbelief. "You're taking the piss, right? You don't own a yacht."

"I sure do. We're going to load it up, sail it a few miles away and anchor it away from everyone else in the world. No corona for us. Of course we can soon return and dock up if we need supplies, or when we have to go to work."

"Oh my god!" Mandy cried excitedly. "I've never even been on a yacht before! Now I'm going to live on one. This is unreal."

"I hope you like it?" Roman asked with a bit of concern. "I really wanted to surprise you. If you don't want to stay on the yacht we can go back to my..."

"Of course I want to stay on it!" Mandy cut in, beaming in delight. "Come on, let's go now! You need to show me around."

"Okay. I can pull the van up next to it to make it easier to unload. Just need to wait for a gap in the traffic."

A few moments later, the van was parked in position. Mandy jumped out as fast as a kid arriving at a theme park.

"Roman, it's unreal!" she was saying as he got out of the van.

Mandy went towards the back of the yacht, for that was where the short gangway to get on-board was located. "Elena," she said, reading the name that was painted on the stern in fancy black lettering. "Why did you choose that?"

"I didn't. She was called that when I bought her. I'm the second owner," Roman explained.

"Ah, okay. Well it's a nice name," Mandy smiled. "Can I go on-board?"

"Of course. After you."

Roman followed Mandy onto the yacht, very much enjoying her reactions to everything.

"What's under there?" she asked, looking at a tightly secured tarp that was covering most of the stern deck that they walked onto.

"A table and some comfy chairs. I keep them covered to keep the weather off them. Let's go inside and I'll show you around the rest of it."

Shortly, they were walking into a lounge area, with comfortable leather couches and a coffee table, all fixed down to the floor in case of rough seas. There was a large TV on the wall.

"Roman, this is stunning," Mandy gasped. "You even have TV on here?"

"And satellite internet," Roman was pleased to announce. "I'm hoping it will be good enough for you to stream."

"Crap, I hadn't thought of that," Mandy said. "I'll have to set my computer up and test it. Is there somewhere I can put it?"

"There sure is. There are two bedrooms on the lower deck. You can take a chair down there and turn the smaller one into an office of sorts. There won't be a huge amount of room, but it should get you by."

"Sounds great, thank you," Mandy said happily. She made her way across the lounge area. At the far end there were stairs leading down to the lower deck and up to the upper deck. "Here's the kitchen," she said, moving beyond the space.

Roman chuckled. "It's called the galley on a boat."

"The galley, right," she said, appreciating the new knowledge. "It's nice and clean. Bonus points for that, Joe."

Roman laughed. It always amused him when she randomly dropped his nickname in. "I pay to have her professionally cleaned every time I spend time on her."

"Lazy! We'll do our own cleaning while I'm around."

"I thought we might," Roman grumbled good naturedly. "Come and have a look upstairs. I know you're going to like it."

"Oh! Sounds exciting!" Mandy exclaimed, following him up the stairs.

At the top of the stairs they emerged onto an open deck. There was another tarp covering a large portion of it.

"There's a dining table and chairs under there," Roman said. "Go further back. That's the part I think you'll really like."

Mandy did as he suggested, finding herself on the part of the upper deck that hung over some of the external lower deck. It was the perfect spot for sunbathing, and there were sun loungers ready for the purpose. "Oh yes," she said, nodding in appreciation. "I could spend a lot of time out here sunning it up. We have the weather for it down here too."

"That's what I thought you'd say," Roman grinned. "The last thing I can show you is the lower deck. Shall we go?"

"Yes! Let's see my new office, and our bedroom."

Roman led the way, already looking forward to spending the night with her in the luxurious king size bed that was in the master bedroom. Ideally, it would be where they had sex for the first time, sooner rather than later. He didn't think he could wait much longer before his balls burst.

At the bottom of the stairs that led down to the lower deck, there were four doors available to them.

"Your office will be in here," Roman said, opening a door that opened towards the front of the yacht.

The bedroom wasn't big by any means. A standard double bed took up most of it, but there was a desk where a computer could be set up, with enough room for a chair in front of it. The bedroom did have it's own bathroom for the occupant's convenience.

"That'll do," Mandy said. "I can set my computer up on there. Hopefully the internet is good enough."

"I hope so too," Roman said.

"I guess that leaves our bedroom," Mandy said, giving him a look that showed she was thinking along the same lines as him with regard to sex. That was a very good sign, he thought.

"Pretty much. There's a couple of bunk beds in there for guests, and the main bathroom is in there," Roman said, motioning to two of the doors as he spoke. That only left one door, which he opened to reveal the bedroom.

"Look at it," Mandy said in delight as she walked in, eyeing up the king size bed. This bedroom also had it's own bathroom. "This is incredible. So luxurious."

"The only downside is the engines are right behind that wall, so it's not the quietest if the boat is moving. But that won't be a problem to us. So, do you think you'll be okay to live on here for a while?"

"Will I be okay to? You wouldn't be able to pay me not to!" Mandy exclaimed, before kissing him passionately.

Chalk this one up as a win, Roman thought. There were worse ways to ride out a global pandemic than on a luxury yacht with a lovely, beautiful lady.


	17. Chapter 17

After going through the laborious process of unloading Mandy's belongings onto the yacht, driving the van back home and returning it to the owner, loading some of his stuff into his car, and driving back to the yacht, Roman had sat down for a break on the deck. A cold beer helped him to relax.

"That's my streaming setup pretty much rebuilt," Mandy announced as she walked out onto the deck to join him.

"Yeah? Does it work?" Roman asked hopefully. Staying on the yacht was rightfully going to be a problem if the satellite internet wasn't good enough to allow her to stream.

"I didn't try a stream, but I did a speed test. It should be good, looking at the results I got." Smiling, Mandy sat down beside him. "If you don't mind, I'll try and do a stream tomorrow."

"Mind? I'll probably watch it," Roman said. "You know, you do a great job of interacting with your audience. It's quite striking when I watch your streams. You're basically presenting, and you're really good at it. In a way it's a shame that you're in this storyline with Otis because I think you'd be perfect as a backstage interviewer, or even announcer."

Mandy looked pleasantly surprised to hear that. "Do you think so?"

"I do. Somewhere down the road, it's something we could bring up. Who knows, maybe Vince would go for it? Would you be interested in doing something like that?"

"Would I? Hell yeah I would. I think doing either of those jobs would be an absolute blast."

"Then it's something to keep in mind. Let's be honest, the worst that can happen is we pitch the idea to Vince and he says no. There's basically nothing to lose."

"True," Mandy nodded.

They sat in silence for a while. Roman sensed that she was thinking about the ideas he had proposed, and he was happy to leave her to do so.

"It's lovely here, Roman," Mandy said eventually.

"It really isn't," he grinned. "The dock is noisy, busy, and it smells of oil. Once I've had this beer, I'll take us out and drop anchor, then it'll be nice."

"Listen to the navy captain," Mandy chuckled.

Roman laughed. "Would you prefer someone who didn't know anything and couldn't drive the boat?"

"Well, no," Mandy said slowly, and they both laughed. "I do want one of those beers, though."

"Help yourself. They're in the fridge."

Mandy went back inside, soon returning with an open bottle of beer. "I even found the bottle opener," she reported.

"Good. Using the edges of the counters makes a mess of them," Roman said, and they laughed again.

Mandy sat back down next to him and they enjoyed a couple of minutes of companionable silence, sipping their beers.

"We're going to make it, aren't we? Through corona, I mean," Mandy said eventually.

"Of course we are, Peach," Roman said, taking her hand to comfort her. "We're going to sit on our boat out there at sea, just you and I together. There will be no other people, so definitely no corona."

"But what about work? We've both got to go to the Performance Center. Obviously there will be a bunch of people there, and any one of them could be carrying it. It's really dangerous, Roman."

"I have been thinking about that," he admitted. "What you said is true. On the other hand, I'm in one of the main events of Wrestlemania. If I bail on that and tell Vince I'm not working, it's really going to screw him over."

"You know what will screw him over even more? You dying. That's what we're talking about here, Roman. You're immunocompromised. If you get this thing, it really could kill you. This is not taking time off for a head cold. This is keeping yourself alive."

The passion in her voice moved Roman. If there could have been any doubt before about whether she loved him, there certainly wasn't now. What she had said made sense, too. There was no job on Earth that was worth killing himself over. "Maybe I should tell Vince I can't work," he thought aloud.

"Yes, you should. And since I'm going to be living with you here on Elena, so should I. It's not safe for me to work and then come back here because I could pass the virus to you. Thinking about it, I guess Vince might refuse to have me back afterwards if I do that, but it is what it is."

"Let me think on it," Roman said. "I'll figure out how best to approach Vince. One thing's for sure, I'm going to talk to him face to face. I owe the man that much at least. I'll definitely go to the first taping in Orlando. Maybe I'll work the show then talk to him afterwards."

"If you're sure that's what's best," Mandy said, making clear that it wasn't her preferred plan of action.

Roman gave her a peck on the lips. "Trust me, it will be for the best. Now, shall we focus on our first night together on-board?"

"Yes," Mandy said. It was only one simple word, but the way she said it conveyed both love and trust. "Where are we going to go and park, or whatever you call it?"

"Drop anchor," he corrected with a smile. "I'm thinking we'll drive out of the harbour and stop somewhere with a nice view of the beach and the city. I'll have to check my chart though because we obviously can't sit in the shipping lane."

"None of that really meant much to me. You know what you're doing, and a view of the beach sounds nice."

Roman downed the rest of his beer in one hit. "Okay, no time like the present. Let's take her out to sea," he said as he got up. "Do you want to stay here, or are you going to come up to the upper deck?"

"I think there's a sun lounger up there with my name on it," Mandy grinned. "I've got a tan that needs work."

"You'll get no complaint from me." Roman offered his hand and helped her up, and they proceeded to the upper deck.

* * *

"It's so beautiful," Mandy said. It was several hours after Roman had anchored the yacht about half a mile off the beach. Daytime had become evening, and was now turning to night. The city's lights provided quite the picturesque view. The multiple beers they had each drunk helped to make the moment seem even more romantic.

"It's not Paris, but it's the best I can do right now," Roman said, sitting with an arm around her waist as they cuddled together on the top deck.

"Paris is always full of rioting these days anyway," Mandy quipped.

"Wow. Hot takes," Roman laughed.

"It's true though," Mandy said with a grin. "No, we'll stick to the view we have right now."

"We don't have to," Roman said quietly, hoping to turn the conversation towards sex. It was time, he felt. Hell, it was way past time.

"Oh?" she asked, turning her head to look at him.

"We could go inside."

"You mean to the bedroom. I'm nervous, Roman. I'm very inexperienced."

"It'll be okay," Roman said tenderly. "We'll take things at your pace, I promise. I don't just want to have sex with you, I was us to make love to each other. There's a big and important difference there."

Mandy seemed comforted and pleased with that. The look in her eyes told Roman what her response was going to be before she spoke.

"Okay. I want to make love to you too," she breathed.

Saying no more, Roman got up and offered his hand. She took it, and they went inside to fully spend the night together for the first time.

* * *

The next morning, Roman woke up as the most contended man on the planet, or so it seemed. The night of love making with Mandy had been tender at first, turning more fiery as she had gained confidence and they had become more familiar with each other's bodies, learning each other's likes and dislikes. Throughout, there had been undeniable passion and electricity between them, the likes of which Roman had hardly ever felt with a woman before. Mandy, with her lack of experience, had found it new to her. Without tooting his own horn, Roman knew that he had blown her mind. It bode well for their future.

The only negative Roman could think of was that he had woken up alone. Apparently Mandy was up already. Since he couldn't hear the shower running, he had to assume she was up on deck. If he was really lucky, she might be making breakfast, he thought as he got out of bed. The weather was already warm, so he put on a pair of swimming shorts and left it at that, figuring that it might be a nice morning for a swim.

Roman left the bedroom and went up the stairs. Sadly, there was no smell of fresh food or coffee coming from the galley. In fact there was no sign of Mandy at all.

"Must be catching some rays already," he muttered to himself as he set off up the next flight of stairs to the upper deck, where the sun loungers were.

"Oh," he said when he walked out onto the deck. The sun loungers were there, but Mandy wasn't. There was no sign of her. Before his confusion had much of a chance to register, the sound of a splash diverted his attention to the water at the back of the yacht. Mandy had just surfaced in the water, wearing a mask and snorkel from a set that Roman had bought one day and left in a cupboard on the main deck. She must have found it and decided to go for a swim.

"Mandy!" he called out, waving to her.

As she was on the surface, she heard him and turned in his direction. She waved to him with one hand, took the snorkel out of her mouth with the other, and began to swim back to the yacht.

Roman made his way down to the main deck to meet her. He was in time to see her getting out of the water. For him, it was like a scene out of a bond movie, watching the incredibly sexy Mandy climb aboard, water dripping from her glistening, luscious body. She looked stunning in the gold bikini set she was wearing.

"Hey, babe," Mandy said cheerfully. She put the mask and snorkel down on the deck and crouched down to take off the long black fins. "I found this stuff in a cupboard. I hope you don't mind me borrowing it? It felt like a perfect morning for a swim."

"How could I possibly mind? You look so sexy, Peach. It's almost unreal."

"Why thank you, sir," Mandy grinned. She stepped up to him and took pleasure in putting her hands on his muscular chest. "You're pretty damn hot yourself."

"I think I'm going to enjoy living on this boat, Ms Rose."

"Not as much as I am, Mr Reigns," Mandy said in an over-the-top sultry voice. Then she laughed. "Listen to us. We sound like we're in a James Bond movie."

Roman gave her a peck on the lips. "I was just thinking the same thing."


	18. Chapter 18

As nice as living on Elena was, practical considerations had to intervene. With the prospect of people panic buying becoming greater by the day as the crisis worsened, Roman had said that they ought to get ahead of it and order in a big grocery shop. They had spent a couple of hours doing it on his phone, and ordered it for delivery to his house. Mandy had also ordered some other essentials from Amazon.

Having arranged for everything to be delivered on the same day, they had driven to the house to wait for it all to come in. Their luck had held out, and everything had been delivered on time, with no issues. There was so much of it that Roman had decided to borrow his neighbour's van again to get it all back to the yacht.

"It looks like a warehouse in here," Roman said with a laugh as Mandy set the last bag of groceries down in the living area on-board. There were bags and boxes everywhere. They had even bought an extra freezer to keep food in, since there wouldn't have been enough storage otherwise.

"True," Mandy laughed. "But this should keep us going for at least a month, probably more. Do you want to drive the boat back out while I put it all away?"

"I don't mind helping you."

Mandy smiled, then firmly explained to him what the deal was. "I love to cook, Roman. It's a passion of mine. And you know how much I like my cleanliness. So, if you don't mind me saying it, the kitchen, or should I say the galley, is going to be my area. You stay out of it as much as possible. Is that okay?"

Roman could tell that she felt a bit unsure, in case she was stepping over a line, but she had no need to worry. If she wanted to do all of the cooking and clean up afterwards as well, he wasn't going to complain. "No, you go right ahead," he said, laughing as he turned and went up the stairs to get the engine going.

Sitting down behind the wheel, he put the key in the ignition and turned it. The engine fired immediately with a throaty rumble. For the sake of maintenance, he liked to let the engine idle and warm up for a couple of minutes before doing anything with it. While waiting, he checked his phone and discovered a missed call and a text from Seth Rollins, his best friend. It had been a couple of days since they had spoken or exchanged messages, which was unusual for them.

Seth Rollins: Hope you're okay, man? This virus looks like it's getting out of control. I'm worried about you, with your chemo and all. Stay safe.

The message made Roman smile. He recognised that having such a good friend was precious, and he valued Seth accordingly. He typed out a reply.

Looks that way, doesn't it? I'll be fine, bro. Mandy came down from New York, and we're going to live together on the yacht, riding this out. You and Becky stay safe too!

Roman had never seen anyone who could type as fast as Seth on a phone. The next message came through almost immediately.

Seth Rollins: Will do. We're in Iowa, so it's just us and a bunch of corn fields. Wish we had a yacht to live on though!

The corn fields joke made Roman smile as he typed his reply.

You can't catch corona from corn! Yeah, it's good. I'm banned from attempting any cooking. Mandy loves doing it, so that's a bonus for me. We were talking about work, and I think I'm going to have to step back for a while. It's not a good idea for me to be around so many people while the virus is around. With my immune system shot, it would only take one person to inadvertently show up with it and I would be in deep shit.

Again, the reply came back quickly.

Seth Rollins: What you're saying makes sense, and I agree. But what about Mania? Are you going to pull out?

I think I have to. I expect Vince to be pissed about his main event being ruined, but I think he'll understand where I'm coming from. Even if he doesn't, my mind is made up.

Seth Rollins: Yes, I think he will understand. Hell, even if he doesn't, you do what you need to do to keep yourself safe. We'll have to set up some kind of video chat soon.

Roman liked that idea, and with Mandy's computer now set up for streaming on the yacht, they had the perfect thing to use for it.

Yes, that would be good. Mandy has her computer with her so that she can continue with her poker streaming. I'm sure it would be perfect for video chat. I'll speak to her and drop you a message about it.

Seth Rollins: Streaming from a yacht. The way some people live.

Roman laughed as he put away his phone. The banter was always good between them. With that, he was ready to back the yacht away from the dock. Actually, no he wasn't, he realised. There was a problem, in that he had forgotten to go and untie the moorings.

Amused by his own silliness, Roman went back down the stairs to the main deck. He found Mandy making good progress with sorting out the van load of things they had brought. The new freezer was plugged in and running, and she was busy packing things into it.

"It might help if I untied the moorings," Roman said. "Not exactly sure how I forgot that."

"I know something we both forgot," Mandy said, stopping for a moment to look at him. "The van needs to be taken back."

"Shit, you're right," Roman said, shaking his head. "What are you doing to me, Mandy?"

"I've driven you insane with love," she said. Then she froze at the word she had used without thinking about it.

Roman walked over to her and kissed her on the lips. He decided to find a middle ground between avoiding what she had said and repeating it because she had said it. "I think you might be right," he said softly.

* * *

"This is pretty crazy, driving to work worried about who or what I might come into contact with," Roman said. He was behind the wheel of his Bugatti, driving himself and Mandy across Orlando to WWE's Performance Center. It was going to be his first show since the corona virus had become a serious enough problem to force all public gatherings to be cancelled. It was also going to be his last show until the situation was under control, not that Vince McMahon knew that yet.

"I know," Mandy said. "And look how little traffic there is. It's like something out of a movie, yet here it is happening in America, in our lifetime."

"And look how we're dressed as a result. I feel like a complete idiot," Roman said. They were both wearing white surgical masks and purple nitrile gloves, part of the order that Mandy had gotten from Amazon.

"But I'm dressed the same way. Are you saying I look like an idiot, Mr Reigns?" Mandy asked in a cheery manner.

"No. You look hot no matter what you wear. And I know you're enjoying wearing those gloves. I'm surprised you're not taking selfies." Glancing over at her, Roman could tell that she looked a little embarrassed by his mention of her fetish. It made him wonder if he had made a mistake.

"Do you think it's weird?" she asked.

Roman felt like they had already had this conversation, but he understood why she was seeking reassurance. If she was inexperienced with sex, she would certainly be inexperienced when it came to talking about her fetish with a partner. It was such a mild one too, so of course he had no issue exploring it with her. "Babe, it's not weird at all. You like what you like. If you feel sexy wearing rubber gloves, or even these things, you can go ahead and wear them whenever you want as far as I'm concerned. You look beautiful to me."

"You may regret saying that when I'm wearing them all the time," Mandy said. There was a hint of red to her cheeks, but she seemed to be enjoying herself.

"I'm sure I won't, babe. I want you to feel sexy, and to enjoy yourself. So you wear whatever you want. It's not like anyone else is ever going to know what the deal is, so you have nothing to be embarrassed about. It'll be our secret."

"Alright then," Mandy said happily. "Thank you for being understanding about it. It could have been awkward. I was afraid it would be."

Currently stopped at a red light, Roman looked over at her. He would have given her a kiss if they weren't wearing the masks. "Hopefully nothing is ever going to be awkward between us. Certainly something like that won't be."

"I'm glad," Mandy said seriously.

It didn't take them long to complete the journey to the Performance Center. Roman didn't like the fact that as he walked into the building he was thinking about how he might keep a suitable distance from his friends and colleagues. It just wasn't supposed to be like that.

The first people they bumped into on their way to the locker rooms were Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross. Already dressed in her ring attire, Alexa giggled at the appearance of the new arrivals. "Hi, guys. You do know wearing one of those masks doesn't do anything if you haven't got the virus, right? They're for people who have it, to stop them spreading it to others."

"Oh," Roman said. It was news to him. Even if she was right, he considered not taking any chances to be the best approach.

"Best to wear one anyway. It can't do any harm," Mandy said.

"True," Alexa smiled. "I can see why you're worried, Roman. Your chemo will have effected your immune system, I guess?"

"Yeah. I'm going to have to be very careful for a while," he said. That's why I'll be talking to Vince after the show, he didn't add. It wasn't a conversation to look forward to.


	19. Chapter 19

Even for someone as high up the WWE pecking order as Roman, getting some time in Vince McMahon's office was no easy feat. He had ended up waiting outside for forty minutes before the boss came out. Predictably it came when Roman had his back turned to the door, engaged in a socially distanced conversation with Baron Corbin.

"You wanted to speak to me, Roman?' Vince asked loudly, cheerfully slapping him hard on the back of his left shoulder.

"Oh, hey, Vince," Roman said in a friendly manner as he turned around. He felt bad about the conversation that was about to take place. He had been given a main event spot at Wrestlemania, and had been pretty much guaranteed a win as well. Now he was going to walk away from it. There was a chance that it might have an effect on the good relationship they had with each other, as it was well known that Vince could be temperamental when things didn't go his way.

"Come in," Vince said, leading the way into the office. "How are things with you? We've not talked in a couple of weeks. I hear you and Mandy Rose are dating?"

"Yeah, we are," Roman was happy to announce as he closed the door behind him.

"She's a beautiful woman," Vince said, moving over to stand near his desk.

"She is. Both inside and out."

Vince looked like he was going to say something else about Mandy, but then he seemed to change his mind. "So, what can I do for you? Something to do with the Wrestlemania match?"

"You could say that," Roman said. He wanted to take a deep breath now that the moment was at hand. "The thing is, Vince, this corona virus is turning out to be a serious thing, as you know. Although it's been over a year since my chemo, my immune system will still take some time to recover. The virus is known to be especially deadly for immunocompromised people. For that reason, I don't think it's safe for me to keep coming to tapings. Sharing a locker room with a bunch of guys or wrestling them would be an easy way for me to catch it, and if I catch it I could die. Vince, I'm truly sorry to do this to you, and you know I'd never do it for any other reason, but I'm going to pull out of Wrestlemania, and all other shows. I simply can't risk working until this is over."

The speech had gone on a bit longer than Roman had planned. Nonetheless, he thought he had gotten through everything that needed to be said, and had done so calmly and respectfully. The fact that Vince didn't say anything immediately actually said a lot. Rarely for him, he took a moment to process what he had heard and consider his response.

"You know what you're walking away from?" Vince said after a moment, speaking calmly. "A Wrestlemania main event. In fact, a win in a Wrestlemania main event, as well as a run as Universal Champion. That's a lot to walk away from. And time out could harm your career in the long term."

The last sentence was delivered as a statement, not a threat. Roman knew it was true, too. Wrestling was a business that moved fast, and someone could get the jump off at any moment, becoming the next big star. Roman had one of the top spots, and he wasn't protecting it if he walked away. Nonetheless, his mind was made up.

"I know what I'm walking away from, Vince. Trust me, I wish I wasn't doing it. But this could be life and death for me. It's something I have to do."

Vince seemed to accept that with some resignation. "You've clearly made your mind up. This is your decision, right? This hasn't come from Mandy or someone else?"

Roman sighed. "Come on, Vince, you know me better than that. This is my decision. Again, it's what I need to do for my health. Although speaking of Mandy, I need to let you know that since we're living together now, and she could easily pick up the virus here and go on to infect me with it, she's going to have to step out too. I'm sorry to also ruin that story for you and Otis."

"Ah, that was just a bit of fun," Vince said with a dismissive hand gesture.

"Mandy would like to continue working with WWE though, when all of this is over. I'd really appreciate it if she got that opportunity."

"When the time comes, we'll talk about it," Vince pledged.

"Thank you. I'm sorry about this, Vince, truly. I know I'm dropping you in the shit."

"You're doing what you need to do," Vince acknowledged, managing a smile. "Keep me informed regarding your intentions. When you're ready to return, we'll have a talk. I'd better get on. As you can imagine, I have a lot of work to do now."

"Of course. Thanks for understanding, Vince. It means a lot," Roman said, offering his hand to the boss.

Vince gave him a firm handshake. "Take care of yourself. And keep in touch."

"Will do. You take care too," Roman said. With that, he turned and left the office. He felt sadness, not knowing when, or possibly if, he would be back. No one could know what lay ahead in the scary, unprecedented times they were living in. On his way along the hallway, he thanked God that he had met Mandy and didn't have to go through it alone.

It didn't surprise him at all when he found her waiting for him. She had her mask pulled down under her chin, which allowed him to see how anxious she looked. "You look upset," she said, coming towards him.

"I am. But the meeting went pretty well. I'm sad because I'm leaving and I don't know when I'll be back."

"Oh, Roman," Mandy said sympathetically as they embraced each other. "What did Vince say?"

"I told him pretty much what I ran through with you. He was understanding. He didn't get angry or anything. He reminded me of what I'm walking away from, and he asked me if I'm sure it's what I want to do. I apologised for leaving him in the lurch, but I said my decision is made. I also told him about us being together, and therefore you're leaving too, but you'd love to come back when we're on the other side of this thing."

Mandy stepped back slightly and looked him in the eye, not looking positive about the answer to her next question. "What did he say to that?"

"He said we'll talk about it at the time."

"Sounds like a blow off," Mandy said glumly.

"No, Vince means what he says. If he didn't want to at least talk about it, he wouldn't have said so. We'll need to come up with something good to pitch to him. I guess we'll have plenty of time on it."

"Yeah, I guess so. So, what happens now? Are we leaving?"

"I guess we are," Roman said, feeling downcast. "I'd better go tell the guys what's going on first. I owe them that, since I'm bailing on them."

"You're not bailing on anyone," Mandy scolded. "Stop thinking like that, please. You're doing what you need to do to stay safe. There's no shame in it."

"I know. And I know it's the right decision, yet I still feel bad about it. Nothing is going to change that."

"I understand," Mandy said.

Roman doubted that she actually did understand, but that wasn't her fault. She had worked with WWE for a matter of weeks, and didn't know much about how the business really worked. The guys in the locker room were his family. There was no way walking out was ever going to feel anything other than wrong.

"Thanks, babe," he said, giving her a kiss on the forehead. "I'll feel somewhat better once we're back on Elena. I'm going to go speak to the guys. I'll meet you in the car, if that's okay?" He took his keys out of his pocket and offered them to her.

"Sure," Mandy said, taking the keys. "I'll make us something nice for dinner later. At least that will be something to look forward to."

"Thank you, that sounds amazing," Roman smiled. "I'll see you in a few."

"Yeah." Mandy gave him a smile before they parted ways.

She's going to be my rock during this, Roman thought as he made his way to the men's locker room. It was going to be important to show his appreciation, as she had been doing for the fact that he had brought her down from New York to stay on the yacht. It was early days in their relationship, but he felt like they were building on a very solid foundation.

The locker room was noisy when Roman walked in, with people packing up their things, preparing to leave. "Guys, can I have a minute, please?" he said.

As the recognised locker room leader, he didn't need to ask twice. He was granted silence almost immediately.

"Thanks. I want you to hear this straight from the horse's mouth. Obviously you all know this virus is starting to get serious, that's why we're here right now. You all also know that I won my most recent battle with leukaemia just over a year ago. My immune system is still not good because of the chemo, which is why I've just been to see Vince. I told him that I'm going to have to pull out of Wrestlemania, and any other work, for the foreseeable future. I feel awful about it, but it's something I've got to do for my health. I hope you'll all understand."

He was virtually inundated with replies from people saying of course they understood, and he should do what was best for his safety.

"Do you have somewhere safe to stay? And are you going to be okay when it comes to buying essentials and stuff like that?" Elias asked.

"Mandy is staying with me. We've got things all figured out, guys. Hopefully I'll ride things out for a while, then life will go back to normal for all of us. Until then, I'm only ever a call or a message away if anyone needs to talk."

Thanks and well wishes came Roman's way from everyone in the room, making him feel truly humbled. There really wasn't anything like the brotherhood in the locker room.

"I'd shake y'all's hands, but I don't think that a good idea in the circumstances. So I'll just say stay safe, and I'll see y'all somewhere down the road."

As his colleagues, or more like his second family, said goodbye, Roman grabbed his travel case and left the locker room with a heavy heart. It wasn't the first time he'd had to go away for a period to look after his health. It hadn't gotten any easier.

The feeling persisted as he made his way out of the building. He had been tempted to go and see Hunter Helmsley too, but he knew they would talk on the phone in the coming days. It was a fairly regular thing for them to do so.

Outside, Roman found Mandy waiting in the car. There was just enough room for his case in the Bugatti's trunk. Once he had it stashed, he got in, noticing that Mandy had done away with her mask and gloves. "I'm surprised you didn't keep the gloves on."

Mandy laughed. "Jokes, that's a good sign. Ordinarily, I'd like wearing them. But when they might have a virus on them, not so much."

Roman laughed too. "I guess that makes sense. Right then, let's go home."

He fired up the engine, carefully pulled out of the parking spot and cruised away from the Performance Center. There was no way to tell when he would see it again.


	20. Chapter 20

"Now that was delicious," Roman said. He put his knife and fork down on his plate and sat back in his chair, letting out a contented sigh. Pork chops baked in chorizo and tomato sauce had been a first for him, prepared to perfection by Mandy, who seemed to be every bit the master chef that she had sold herself as.

"I'm glad you enjoyed it," she smiled from across the small table.

"You're an amazing cook. I was wondering if you were talking yourself up too much before, but now I'm totally a believer. You're wasted as a poker player."

Mandy giggled. "Ten million bucks says I'm not too bad at that, either."

"Humble, too," Roman said with a laugh of his own.

Mandy stacked Roman's plate onto hers, placing both sets of cutlery on top. With that, she got up from the table. "I'm going to wash these before the food dries on."

"I'd offer to do it, but apparently I'm banned from the galley."

"You are banned, officially and permanently. Make a mess of my galley, I'll have to throw you overboard."

"I'd like to see you try, Ms Rose. I think it might be you who ended up in the drink, and it would be for more than a bit of snorkelling."

Mandy laughed as she walked over to the galley with the plates. She put them in the sink with the cooking utensils and pans she had used, and got the water running. Roman decided the least he could do was go and talk to her while she worked, even if it technically meant breaking his ban on entering the galley.

"After I've done this, what do you say we crack open a bottle of wine and go up on the top deck?" Mandy suggested. True to form, she put on a pair of dark green rubber gloves before starting to do the dishes.

"Sounds good to me," Roman said as he stepped up behind her at the sink and put his hands around her waist. "It's a fairly warm evening, and it's a nice view. A bit like this one," he added, kissing the side of her neck.

"Mmmm," Mandy purred, enjoying the kisses while she worked. "I'm glad you like what you see, Joe."

"Always, Peach. Especially when you have gloves on. Very sexy."

"Now you're teasing," she scolded, flicking some bubbly water at him.

"As if I'd do that," Roman laughed.

The banter continued while Mandy did the dishes. Roman took on the job of drying, discovering that it wasn't covered by the ban. When the job was done, he poured them a glass of wine each and they went up to the top deck. There was a cool breeze blowing, but it wasn't too bad. Elena was once more anchored with a view of Orlando's night skyline.

"Back to streaming tomorrow for me," Mandy said as they sat down together. "I'd better do some long ones to catch up with my hours a bit."

"Good idea." Roman found himself thinking that lockdown, even on a yacht with a beautiful woman, didn't provide a whole lot to do, especially if the woman had to work. "I'm going to have to find myself something to do apart from working out and swimming. Maybe I'll order a Playstation or something."

"That's a good idea. Or get a laptop so that you can use the camera to video call your friends and family," Mandy suggested.

That reminded Roman of Seth's suggestion to get a video call set up between them. "Speaking of, Seth suggested we could get on a video call with him and Becky at some point. I thought maybe we could use your computer for it, if that's okay?"

"Of course," Mandy said happily. "It'll be nice to start getting to know your friends. We should do the same with my best friend, Clementine. She happens to be a wrestling fan, so I know she would love to chat to you. I was going to try and get her to a Smackdown episode when crowds were a thing. It would have been funny for her to be there live to see me in action. RIP that idea, I guess."

"Why RIP that idea?" Roman asked after taking a sip of wine.

"I can't see myself working with WWE again. I know you said Vince told you he would talk to us about it, but even so, why would he be bothered about taking me back? I'm not a wrestler."

"No, you're not a wrestler," Roman said thoughtfully. "And it's true that Vince won't likely put any of the creative team's effort into coming up with anything for you. No, we're going to have think of a good idea ourselves and hope that he'll go for whatever we come up with."

Mandy puffed up her cheeks and blew out a sigh. "I have no idea what kind of thing would be good. I mean, the thing with Otis was perfect because I didn't have to be a wrestler."

"You're a good presenter," Roman said, thinking aloud. "I've watched your streams, and you really are good at it. You chat so easily and relatably with your viewers. A backstage interviewing spot might be the right thing for you."

"Hmmm. Maybe," Mandy said. She drank some wine while considering it. "Hey, what about one of those talk show kind of things? You know, Moment of Bliss, Miz TV, that sort of thing. We could try and sell it to Vince that having a non-wrestler host one would put a unique spin on it."

Inspiration struck Roman. Her idea wasn't bad, but he felt like he had come up with a way to improve upon it. WWE were starting to get into video-style podcasts, with things like Stone Cold's Broken Skull Sessions. Wrestlers would go on the show and talk candidly about themselves. Roman's idea was for a similar kind of show hosted by Mandy, with the difference being that wrestlers would appear in character.

"How about this," he said, going on to describe the idea.

"It does sound interesting. It sounds kind of like a WWE version of Jerry Springer or something. My only issue is I have no experience with interviewing people."

Roman took a hit from his wine glass. "I don't see that as a major problem. Like I said, you're good at presenting, and at talking to people. I'm sure you would take to interviewing like a duck to water. Keep it simple; be yourself, talk to them and have them talk to you.

"Maybe. I do like the idea," Mandy said, her enthusiasm growing by the moment. "What would we call the show?" she asked with a laugh.

They both thought for a while. Roman wasn't coming up with much. Only one idea came to mind, and he wasn't sold on it. "A Bed of Roses is the best I've got."

"That's not bad," Mandy said. "I was trying to come up with names using Rose too. How about The Rose Garden?"

"The Rose Garden. I like that," Roman said, nodding his approval. "My only concern would be whether the name fits the kind of show it would be."

"I don't know. Possibly that might be a problem?"

"Either way, it's an idea we can pitch to Vince. I think it's a good one. It has what I think might be the added bonus of not requiring time on Raw or Smackdown. We might have gotten some resistance from him about that. A studio show may well appeal to him more. We could run it by Seth and Becky when we chat to them and see what they think of it."

"Yeah, let's do that. If they don't like it, we'll know we likely wouldn't have a chance with Vince."

"That's the plan then. More wine?" Roman asked, finishing off his glass.

Mandy quickly downed her wine and handed the glass over. "Yes, please."

"I'll make sure not to spill any in the galley, in case I end up getting murdered."

"I'll be checking forensically for traces of wine," she assured him with a beautiful smile.

Chuckling, Roman made his way down the stairs to the lower deck. He felt glad that the creative team would come up with an idea for his return, considering himself not to be very good at it based on the experience he'd just had.

As he poured a second glass of wine for them both, he decided to change the subject when he went back upstairs. It was a nice evening, perfect for a bit of romance. Mandy was opening up to him sexually as she gained experience and confidence. Both of their appetites were only increasing, and Roman felt ready for sex. They could enjoy the evening a bit first, though.

Wine glasses in hand, Roman made his way back up the stairs. He found Mandy now with her top off. As soon as she saw him, she started seductively taking off her bra. They were back in Bond movie territory.

"Why hello, Mr Reigns," Mandy purred, batting her eyelashes at him.

"Hello, Ms Rose. You look splendid," Roman said, putting on a rather awful English accent. "Can I interest you in a drink?"

"You can. Thank you," Mandy said as she took one of the glasses. "Can I interest you in some boobs?"

Roman laughed heartily. "Of course you can. Let me get in behind you, and I'll take you up on that generous offer."

As Mandy moved for him, Roman took his shirt off. He figured if she was going to go topless the least he could do was return the favour. He sat down behind her and started massaging her breasts with his hands.

"You know, Mandy, on second thoughts I don't think I'm in any kind of hurry to get back to WWE. I think I've got everything I want right here."

Mandy moaned softly in pleasure, indicating that she very much agreed with him.


	21. Chapter 21

"Mandy," her voice whispered at the start of the intro music for her stream. Roman was up on the yacht's top deck, tuned in on his iPad. The usual ten minute countdown was on the stream, with the saxophone music playing. In a way, it reminded Roman of cheesy old porn videos, he thought with a smile, not that he was going to tell Mandy that. Nonetheless, it was catchy and memorable, which made it good for its purpose as intro music.

"Okay, I'm up and running," Mandy said happily as she walked out onto the deck. She had a red t-shirt on, with white shorts and a white PokerStars baseball cap. Seeing the smile on her face made Roman happy too.

"So I see," Roman smiled, holding up his iPad to show that he was watching. "Are you looking forward to a day of poker?"

"I am. You don't mind that I'm going to be on there for like seven or eight hours, do you?"

"No. As I said before, I don't expect or want you to stop or change your streaming on my account. You have fun, and win plenty of money."

Mandy laughed. "The first part I can do. The second part I'm not sure about." She leaned down and kissed him. "Will you come in at some point and say hi to the stream?"

"Sure," Roman said, glad that she wanted him to get involved with her work. "I'm going to chill up here for a bit and watch. I'll be down later."

"Okay. Wish me luck," Mandy said cheerfully.

"Good luck, Peach. Have fun."

"You too. Enjoy the sun." As she said it, a cloud blocked it out, with perfect comic timing.

"Well done," Roman said, pretending to blame her for it.

"I'll get out of here before I make something else bad happen."

With that, Mandy went back inside and down the stairs. Roman knew she would have some last minute prep to do in the bedroom/office before she went live to her audience. Looking at the number on the screen, he saw that more than two hundred people were already waiting to watch his girl in action. It made him proud, but in a way it also made him uneasy. He just knew that some of those viewers would be perving on her once she was on the screen, and there was nothing that could be done about it. He wasn't a guy to feel insecure often, and he didn't like it at all.

Forcing his unease aside as best he could, Roman sat back and relaxed while he waited for the stream to start. The sun soon came back out, which was a bonus.

Eventually, the countdown ended. Mandy's usual intro video played, then she finally appeared on the screen. As ever, she began with a full screen shot of herself. Even though he had only seen her minutes before, he was still struck by how beautiful she looked. She really was photogenic, which was a good thing for a potential return to WWE, he thought. Everyone knew that Vince liked him a good looking woman in his content.

"Hello, hello, hello!" Mandy said. "Good morning everyone! How are you all doing? I hope everyone's okay? I'm sorry I haven't streamed for a few days. I'm sure I don't need to tell you that times are pretty crazy right now, and it's no different for me. As you can clearly see, I'm not streaming from my office. In fact I'm not even streaming from New York."

She paused for a moment to read the chat.

"Good morning, Baba. Good morning, Leesh. Good morning, Mr Brown. Good morning, Kuldip."

Roman watched seemingly endless good morning messages scrolling up the screen, vying for Mandy's recognition and attention. Subscriptions were also starting to come in. The text to speech wasn't on yet, while she was chatting to the viewers herself.

"Thanks for the subs, guys. I'll get to those messages soon. Where am I streaming from? A top secret location. And as it's the first stream from here, I'm hoping the internet holds up. We'll have to see how it goes."

Roman saw several people asking if she was with him. He wasn't a fan of random people being so interested in her personal life, not seeing what relevance it had to watching her play poker. Mandy ignored the questions, obviously intending to save him as a surprise for later.

Before long, she got down to business, registering for at least six tournaments at once. Roman couldn't understand how she managed to concentrate on so many poker games at once, but she did.

Her first hour seemed to go quite well, winning quite a few hands and only losing one big one that Roman could recall. When the tables went on a five minute break, he decided it was time to go and show himself.

Putting his iPad down, he got up and walked down to the main deck. He decided to grab Mandy a bottle of Mountain Dew from the fridge in the galley before continuing down to the lower deck.

Aware that the bedroom door wasn't in the shot on Mandy's stream, Roman opened it quietly so that only she would notice.

"Damon, thank you for the thirteen months," Mandy was saying to a viewer who had just renewed their subscription to her channel. Noticing the door opening, she turned to look at Roman and beamed. "Oh, hey!" she said, before looking back at the camera. "Guys, I have a surprise guest for you today."

Roman walked over to her and crouched beside her so that he would be visible on the camera. "Hi," he said, looking in the camera and giving the viewers a wave. It was the first time he had seen Mandy's streaming setup in action. On one screen, she had six poker tables. On the other was her streaming software, including the chat. Looking at it, he saw it starting to go crazy in reaction to him appearing.

"He even brought me a drink," Mandy said happily, taking the Mountain Dew and showing it to the camera.

"I have to keep you refreshed while you're working," Roman said.

"It's much appreciated. Some of these hands have had me sweating."

Roman happened to look at the chat. One of the messages he saw instantly pissed him off.

They're on Roman's boat. If I was there I'd definitely be motorboating those tits.

"Who's that asshole in your chat?" he demanded.

"What asshole?" Mandy asked, surprised by the tone of his voice. She clicked a button on the side of her mouse, which he suspected muted the microphone.

"It's gone now. There was some prick making sexual comments about you. How do they have the nerve?"

"Come outside," she said, getting up. She sounded annoyed with him, which didn't help his mood at all as he followed her out of the bedroom.

"Did you see what he said?" Roman demanded.

"No, I didn't. But rude or crude comments aren't all that rare. That's why I have moderators on the stream – to delete the messages and ban people." Again, she seemed to Roman more like she was annoyed with him than the offending viewer.

"Why are you getting moody with me? I'm not the one in the wrong here."

"Roman, I wanted you to come on and have a bit of fun with the stream. The first thing you did was blow up at someone. Think how that looks to my viewers."

"If that guy is anything to go by, fuck your viewers. I don't like people talking to or about you like that."

"It's part of streaming, Roman. There are always bad apples and trolls. Again, that's why I have moderators. I'm sorry it got under your skin, but it's really not something that bothers me."

"Well, it bothers me," Roman said stubbornly.

"Well, I can't do anything about that. I need to get back to it."

"Fine," Roman said, turning to head back up the stairs as Mandy went back into the bedroom. The door banged shut behind her.

Shit, I guess we just had our first fight, he thought. Inevitably, he started critiquing his own behaviour as well as Mandy's as he went back up to the top deck. He didn't feel like he was wrong to be annoyed about someone saying things like that to his girlfriend. Why would any man stand for that? What he couldn't understand was why she seemed to be more willing to get annoyed with him than the random people who watched her content.

I suppose she looks at it differently, he thought as he sat back down and picked up his iPad. He decided to turn off the stream and watch something else in case any other messages set him off. They were already going to have to talk over the argument, so making it worse certainly wouldn't help.

About an hour later, Mandy appeared on the deck. The tables would be on break again, Roman thought. He had cooled off now, regretting the argument and hoping they could work things out without further confrontation.

"Hey," she said in a conciliatory tone. Roman was glad to hear it. Having a prolonged row over what had happened would be stupid.

"I'm sorry for how I spoke to you," she said, walking over to him. "I should have been more understanding of the fact that you don't know a lot about streaming. What that guy said was wrong and insulting, but it's something you know is going to happen when you stream, especially if you're a woman. I just ignore it and leave my mods to take care of it. They're very good at what they do for me."

"I'm sorry if I went too far off the deep end," Roman said, having taken in what she had said. "It did trigger me, but I shouldn't have gone off in front of your viewers. I know that wasn't a good look, so I apologise if I embarrassed or angered you."

"Then we're both sorry. Can we move on?" Mandy asked hopefully.

Glad that the disagreement could be put behind them, Roman readily agreed. "Of course we can. Give me a kiss."

Mandy leaned down and gave him a fulsome kiss on the lips. "I'd better get to it. Maybe come down again later, and we can try again?"

"I'd like that," Roman said. "I'll avoid reading the chat," he added as a joke.

Mandy laughed. "Might be a good idea."

"Good luck," Roman said as she headed back inside.

"Thank you. It's always needed."


	22. Chapter 22

As time went on, it had started to become fairly clear to Roman that the corona virus crisis was not going to be something that could be ridden out by staying on Elena for a month or two. By the end of May, the virus was still not under control, lockdown restrictions were still in place, and WWE was still taping shows with no crowd at the Performance Center.

Living on the yacht had been a lot of fun to begin with, indeed it still was in a lot of respects. But Roman realised that it wasn't a long term solution. He wanted to move back to his house, and he wanted Mandy to move there with him, he had finally decided one morning. All that remained was to find the right time to ask Mandy. He was aware that asking her to move into his house was a different question to asking her to stay with him onto his yacht for a while. Moving into his house required a big commitment. He was hopeful that she would make that commitment, but it couldn't be taken for granted.

With the year progressing towards summer, the Florida weather was now tropical. Roman had discovered how much time Mandy could spend on a sun lounger, which bordered on the extreme. When she wasn't streaming or cleaning, she could very often be found on the top deck. On the plus side, she had a truly gorgeous tan as a result.

While Roman did his morning workout every day, Mandy liked to go for a swim to wake herself up. It had become their morning routine, with a light breakfast coming afterwards. Neither of them were big morning eaters.

Walking out onto the back of the yacht, he saw that she was still in the water. The top of her snorkel was visible about twenty yards away. He sat down with his legs dangling over the back of the boat, waiting for her to surface.

It took a few minutes before she surfaced, facing the boat. She had moved quite a bit further away by that point. Roman waved to her, and she waved back.

"Enjoying the water?" he called out.

Mandy took the snorkel out of her mouth and started treading water back to the yacht, helped by her fins. "What?" she called back.

"I said are you enjoying the water?"

"Yeah! But I'm ready for breakfast!"

"Me too! So get back here!" Roman called out, deliberately being cheeky.

"Not sure you'll enjoy yours, with a snorkel stuck up your ass!"

Roman laughed. "That's very kinky!"

Laughing, Mandy came over to the boat. "You're a vile man, you know that?"

"True, but you wouldn't have me any other way."

"That's true," Mandy giggled. She offered her hand, and Roman helped her out of the water. "It's so refreshing to start the day with a swim."

"I'm glad you enjoy it," Roman smiled.

"Looks like I got it in at the right time. The sky looks pretty dark out to sea," she said as she took off the mask and fins, setting them on the deck.

Roman looked in the direction she was looking and saw that the she was right; the sky was a filthy dark grey out to sea. "That looks like we might get some rain."

"Booo," Mandy said as they walked inside. She brought the snorkel gear in and put it on a counter. "How am I supposed to work on my tan if it rains?"

She stepped up to Roman, and he put his hands around her waist. "I don't think your tan needs much work, Peach. You look gorgeous already."

"So do you. But I still want to work on my tan," Mandy said before kissing him on the lips. "I guess I'll fix breakfast, and hopefully the rain will clear out by then."

"I'm sure it will," Roman said. He sat down at the small dining table while Mandy went into 'her' galley to fix their food. She also got the coffee machine going. As she worked, Roman thought through how he was going to broach the subject of wanting to move back to his house, and wanting her to move with him. He decided that the best thing to do was to simply be honest about how he felt, then give her the chance to do the same.

"Are you okay? You seem preoccupied," Mandy said when she brought the two cups of coffee over to the table.

"I am, kind of. There's something I'd like to talk about."

"Oh? That sounds pretty ominous," Mandy said, heading back to the galley for the breakfast plates.

"It's not ominous, I promise," he said, smiling. "It is something pretty important though.

Returning to the table, Mandy put the plates down, setting Roman's in front of him.

"Thank you," he said.

Mandy sat down, tucking straight into her food. "Okay, hit me with it. I hope it's not a marriage proposal," she quipped.

"No," he laughed. "How are you finding living on the yacht?"

Mandy seemed a little surprised that the conversation had gone in that direction. She took a moment to consider an answer. "I like a lot of things about it. I'm sure you know what they are. But there are some downsides too. I mean, it can feel cramped sometimes. My streaming setup isn't ideal, and sometimes the internet isn't great. I'm sensing you're thinking about moving off here?"

Very intuitive, Roman thought. At least it meant that he didn't have to hedge around the subject. "I was thinking about it, yes. For the same reasons you said, plus we'll be low on food soon. Mainly, though, just that it's a nice place to live for a while. This isn't going to only be for a while by the look of it. It looks like we're in it for the long haul, so I think it would be much better to live in a house. That's why I've been trying to pluck up the courage to ask you to move in with me."

Mandy took in a deep breath and occupied herself with drinking some of her coffee, which didn't exactly seem like a positive response to Roman.

"I was wondering if this was going to happen," she said cautiously. "Here's the thing, Roman. I would love to move in with you, but not in Florida. When all of this is over, whenever that is, I need to be in New York. My dad will be there, and he's all I have in the world, apart from you of course. Rose's is there too, our family business. I don't feel like I can move away from New York permanently."

That was a bit of a curve ball for Roman. He had hoped for a yes, while accepting the possibility that he might get a no. A yes, but not here had not occurred to him. "So you're saying we could move in together if it was somewhere near where you live now?" he asked in order to buy himself some thinking time.

"Well, yeah. I feel bad about it when you say it back to me like that. I just miss my dad so much. I know I haven't said much about it, and I talk to him often on the phone, but I really do miss him, and the shop. Obviously I know moving up there would mean you moving away from your parents in Pensacola, though. It's an awkward situation."

"That's true. But it's a bit different for me because I'm never here anyway when WWE is on its regular schedule. I'm used to seeing mom and dad on FaceTime much more than I do in person. Obviously that's not the case for you. You like helping your dad with the family business, as well you should."

"So, where does that leave us?" Mandy asked rather timidly. Her appetite for breakfast seemed to have disappeared.

Christ, Roman thought, she thinks I'm going to break up with her over this. His actual intention couldn't have been further away from that. He needed to make that clear, he realised. "I guess it leaves us planning a move to New York," he said, smiling broadly.

"Wait, really?" Mandy squealed. "You would move to New York?"

"Yes, I would. But it would obviously have to be when this virus situation is all over. Until then, we'll need to move into my place."

Mandy squealed again, getting up from the table and coming around to him. She grabbed him in a hug before he even managed to fully stand up.

"I'm so happy. I love you so much," she blurted out as they embraced. And just like that, the three magic words had been said between them for the first time.

"I love you too, Peach," Roman said, giving her a kiss. He couldn't remember ever having felt happier. He might only have just said it, but he had known for a long time that he loved Mandy, and that their relationship was going to be the real deal. It meant so much to know that she saw it the same way.

Outside, there was a loud rumble of thunder. It came with perfect comedic timing.

"Well, that's ominous," Roman said, and they both laughed.

"At least if the storm gets really bad and tips the boat over and kills us, we can go out knowing that we love each other."

"That's very optimistic of you," Roman said, laughing again. "I think I'll get us back to the marina before it gets that far."

"Okay, captain Joe. My life is in your hands."

Roman chuckled. "Famous last words."

"Love you," Mandy said, enjoying it now that it had been said once.

"Love you too, babe. When we get to the marina, we'll start making plans for the move to my place."

"Can't wait," Mandy smiled.


	23. Chapter 23

By August there was still no sign of an opportunity for Roman to safely return to work. The corona virus was still not under control, large public gatherings were still banned, and WWE was still having to tape all shows at the Performance Center.

Things were better for Roman and Mandy. They had been living in his house for a few months now, and things were going great for them. In simple terms, they were very much in love. No amount of time locked down in the house seemed to feel like too much to them.

Of late, in a move that seemed to be designed to save the economy as much as anything else, businesses and retail stores were opening up again. Mindful of Roman's health, neither he nor Mandy had been out for anything more than essential grocery shopping, which she had dealt with on their behalf.

With the world slowly getting back to normal, or at least back to what was going to pass for normal, with social distancing and mandatory face masks, Roman had gotten the impression that crowds returning to arenas wouldn't be far away. There were two things that were causing him to view a return to work in a more positive light. Firstly, he had spoken to the doctor who had handled his cancer treatment, learning that his immune system was actually a lot stronger than he had given it credit for. Secondly, it seemed that the destructive power of the virus had been exaggerated by the media in the earlier stages of the outbreak. Doing some research of his own had provided him with some more comforting statistics.

All in all, Roman had felt able to call WWE HQ and leave a message with Vince McMahon's secretary that he and Mandy were ready to return to work once it was deemed safe enough for arena shows to return. He imagined that would still be a couple of months away at least, leaving more time for the virus situation to improve.

His mention of Mandy's name during the phone call had been quite deliberate. There was a possibility that Vince might not be all that interested in bringing her back. He wasn't going to get off that easily if Roman had anything to say about it.

The call back from Stamford arrived while Mandy was out on one of her grocery runs. Roman was in the kitchen, fixing himself a coffee. He felt a little apprehensive as he looked at his ringing phone. It had been quite some time since he had spoken to Vince. They had been in touch via text message several times, but that was something altogether different. The first few moments of the call were going to tell him a lot. The boss would either be delighted to hear from him and enthusiastic about bringing him back, or he would be standoffish and indifferent. If it was the latter, his career was in trouble, and Mandy's was probably over with.

Here we go, Roman thought, answering the call. "Hello?"

"Hello, Roman," came Vince's distinctive booming voice. "I got your message. You're ready to return work?"

"Hi, Vince," Roman said, glad of the somewhat positive tone he heard in McMahon's voice. They were getting straight down to business, which was fairly usual for phone calls with Vince. "I'm ready to return to work once it's deemed safe enough for arena shows to return. I think we'll be over the worst of the virus by then."

"Glad to hear it. We do have something in mind. Why don't you come to the office and we'll talk about it? You're okay with getting a flight, right?"

"Sure," Roman replied, hiding his instinctive reluctance. He had pretty much expected to have to go to the office. Being summoned for face to face meetings was part of being one of the top guys in the company. Until the virus happened, it hadn't been a problem. "Should Mandy come with me? I'm hoping you're interested in bringing her back. We have an idea that we'd like to pitch to you for her."

"That won't be necessary," Vince said. For a second, Roman thought he was going to have to go into battle for his girl. "We've already got an idea for her."

That was great news, Roman thought. Or at least he hoped it was. After all, there was no guarantee that it wasn't a crap idea. That would be a bridge to cross if it became necessary. For now, he would take the win as far as WWE wanting to continue using her was concerned. "Sounds good. When do you want us to come up?" he asked.

"Let's make it Monday. Monday at 2pm."

"We'll be there. See you then."

"See you then," Vince agreed, and the call was ended. There had been something in his voice that sounded like he was looking forward to it, at least a little. Roman was too. McMahon wasn't always easy to work for, but Roman did like him.

"Some good news to tell Mandy, anyway," he said to himself as he put his phone down on the counter and resumed fixing his coffee.

It was just over half an hour later when Mandy walked through the front door. Roman went out to the hallway to greet her, finding that she was carrying three bags of groceries, wearing a white medical mask and black nitrile gloves, which she quickly pulled off now that she was home. The mask came off next.

"Hey. It's so warm out there, you wouldn't believe it. I need some iced water," she said.

"Hey. I can fix that for you," Roman said. "I'll leave you to deal with those bags. I know I'm not allowed to pack anything away." The fact that they were living in his house made no difference, the kitchen ban was still in effect. Fixing the ice water was about all he was allowed to do in there.

"Thank you, babe," Mandy said. Reaching where he was standing, she gave him a peck on the lips. "What have you been doing while I was out?"

"I got a call back from Vince."

"Oh! What did he have to say? Are they ready to bring you back?" she asked as she carried the bags through to the kitchen.

"They're ready to bring us both back," Roman was happy to announce. "Vince wants to see us at the office, as I suspected. The appointment is 2pm Monday."

"You're okay with flying?" she asked. Putting the grocery bags on one of the kitchen counters, she looked at him with some concern. It said a lot that she focused on that first rather than the news she had just gotten that she was going to be brought back to work for WWE. Roman found that compassionate side of her to be one of the things that he loved the most.

"Things have to go back to normal at some point, Peach. And like we've discussed, my immune system is in a better state now. If I don't get back to work soon, when will I? I can't sit at home forever and let life pass me by. Besides, I miss wrestling so much. It's what I want to do."

"And you know I've got your back one hundred per-cent."

"I know," Roman smiled. "And I've got your back too, which is why I was delighted when Vince said they have an idea in mind for you."

"Wait, they have an idea? You didn't tell them what we came up with?"

"I didn't get the chance. Vince said he wanted you to come along too because they have something for you. I wasn't going to question it."

"No, of course not. I wonder what their idea is? I'll be disappointed if it's something worse than ours."

"Me too. Hopefully it's good. If not, then we can still pitch our idea. Just because Vince has one doesn't mean we necessarily have to agree to it."

Mandy laughed. "I think it's safe to say I don't have that kind of stroke in WWE."

"No, but I do," Roman said with a grin. "Or at least, I did before all of this happened. If it comes to it, I'll do a bit of arm twisting. One way or another, we'll arrive at something you're happy with, I promise."

Mandy smiled in appreciation. "Thank you, Roman. I'm a lucky woman. I can't wait to learn what I'll be doing. But what about you? What do they have for your return?"

"I don't know," Roman said with a shake of his head. "Vince kept his cards close to chest over the phone. We'll have to wait and see what happens on Monday."

"I'm really excited!" Mandy cried.

"Me too. It's going to seem like it takes ages for Monday to come around."


	24. Chapter 24

The flight from Orlando to New York had been a surreal experience for Roman and Mandy, not to mention the experience at the airport. Usually hives of activity, there had hardly been anyone there at all.

"I wonder if we can keep airports like this after the virus?" Roman had said.

"I think that might be wishful thinking," Mandy had replied. "In any case, it's creepy. I don't like it at all."

If the airport experience had been creepy, the flight had possibly been worst. They had been among only an handful of passengers on a flight that would ordinarily have been full. At least that meant a reduced risk of exposure to the virus, Roman had thought.

"That's an experience I wouldn't like to repeat," Mandy said once they were in the car that Vince McMahon had sent to pick them up and take them to HQ.

"We'll have to repeat it on the way home," Roman pointed out.

"This is true. That's why I brought spare masks and gloves," Mandy said, holding up her handbag. They had discarded their first set after leaving the airport, deciding that they would be safe enough in the back of the car. Walking into the office dressed like that had definitely been ruled out, for Vince would be unimpressed.

"You've got a handbag full of gloves. Why am I not surprised?" Roman asked quietly, giving her a mischievous smile.

"Give a girl the right to feel sexy about herself," Mandy chided him, also smiling.

"I've told you before, you can wear what you want, whenever you want as far as I'm concerned. You always look hot to me."

"You know how to say the right things," Mandy giggled. She paused for a moment, then her tone changed. "Roman?"

"You okay?" he asked with some concern, picking up that she sounded worried about something.

"I'm nervous about this meeting. Sitting down in an office talking business isn't something I've ever done before, let alone with someone like Vince McMahon. Until recently I streamed poker and made sandwiches for a living. I'm way out of my comfort zone."

Roman hadn't really thought that through, he realised. Because he had met Mandy at a WWE event, and because she now worked for the company, he tended to think of her as being much more experienced in the wrestling business than she actually was. The truth was that she was still an outsider. It was something that he was going to have to do a better job of remembering, in order to help her with it. For now, he needed to put her at ease about the meeting as best he could.

"Think of it as having a cup of coffee and a chat with someone. Vince is quite easy to talk to when you come to the office, away from the hustle and bustle of a show. We'll just be going over ideas. I'm sure you'll feel at ease once we're in there. It'll be one of those situations where the anticipation of something with be worse than the reality of it. And if you do struggle, which you won't, I'll be sat right next to you. It'll be fine."

"I trust you," Mandy said seriously.

Roman loved the simplicity of her response. It showed how strong their bond was. She was prepared to accept that things were going to be okay based entirely on the fact that he said they would be.

About an hour later, Roman and Mandy walked into Vince McMahon's outer office. Roman found himself thinking how professional and attractive Mandy looked in her cream coloured dress. She certainly didn't appear as out of place as she likely felt.

"Good afternoon," Vince's secretary said politely. She was an attractive brunette in her thirties. Roman had forgotten her name, if he had ever been told it.

"Hi. We're meeting Vince at 2pm. We're a little early," Roman said.

"That's okay. Vince is in the gym, so you might have to wait a while. Have a seat. Can I get you anything to drink?"

"No, thank you," Roman said.

"I'm good, thanks," Mandy said.

With that, they walked over and sat down on two of the several comfortable leather chairs for visitors.

"Is that usual?" Mandy asked under her breath, referring to Vince's lack of punctuality.

"Yeah. You never see Vince without having to wait. He'll be here soon, maybe." He had intended it as a joke, but it seemed to make Mandy more nervous. He supposed he could understand why the wait wasn't helping her.

It was nearly 2:30pm by the time Vince showed up. "Hey, Roman! It's good to see you!" he said enthusiastically in his typical booming voice as he strode into the office, looking fresh in a light grey suit.

"Hello, Vince. It's good to see you too," Roman said, getting up. He didn't have to fake smiling broadly. It really was nice to see the boss after so long.

"I keep being told hugs are off limits, so it'll have to be a handshake," Vince said with good humour.

Roman laughed. "A handshake will do," he said, accepting the gesture. "Crazy times we're living in, huh?"

"I think it'll soon be over, and not before time," Vince said. It was fairly typical of him to view the virus as nothing more than an annoyance, as if people were overreacting to it. "Hello, Mandy. It's good to see you again. You look great."

"Thanks, Vince. It's good to see you too," Mandy said as she shook his hand. Knowing her as well as he did, Roman could tell she was a bit uncomfortable doing it because of the pandemic.

"Bring some coffee in will you, Christina?" Vince said to the receptionist.

"Of course," Christina said cheerfully.

"Right, come through," Vince said, leading the way into his office. "How has life in Florida been treating you? You both look well."

"It's been good. But I have missed working a lot. Can't wait to get back to it, once it's safe," Roman said.

"Yes, you mentioned you were looking to return when we're finally back in arenas," Vince said. He sat down behind his desk and motioned for them to take a seat in front of it.

"That's right," Roman said as he sat down.

"We're expecting that to happen in the near future. I'm actually going to hold you back longer than that, both of you. I want to bring you back at the Royal Rumble."

"Are you saying we're going to be brought back together? Is Mandy going to manage me?" Roman asked. Glancing at her, he saw her smiling at the thought.

"You are both going to come back at the Rumble, but no, Mandy won't be managing you. Let's talk about you first, Roman. I want you to turn heel."

"Oh," Roman said in surprise. He noticed Mandy look at him with her eyebrows raised. "Tell me more."

"Starting in the near future, you're going to start tweeting things out about Smackdown being your yard, saying people like Braun Strowman should enjoy being on top while they can because it will be different when you come back, you know the kind of thing."

No points for originality, Roman thought. But he wasn't against the idea of turning heel. Indeed he had pitched for it himself in the past when he had been the object of hatred from many of WWE's fans despite supposedly being a babyface.

"So, what happens at the Rumble?" he asked.

"You win the rumble match. I think it's safe to assume that will piss a fair few people off, so we'll be off to a good start."

"Well, thanks, Vince. This sounds good to me so far," Roman said. He obviously had no intention of arguing about being brought back in right at the top. To do so would have been insanity.

They proceeded to discuss some more details for Roman's big comeback. As they did so, Christina returned with a tray, and fixed coffee for everyone according to their preferences. When they were done discussing Roman, it was Mandy's turn.

"Okay, that brings me to you, Mandy," Vince said, looking at her. "I've been told by someone who has watched some of the streams you do that you have natural charisma; that you're a good talker. Adding that to the fact that you're obviously very good-looking, I think we can make use of you on TV. I see you as a valet, or a manager, as seems to be the popular description for it now."

"Seriously? Awesome!" Mandy exclaimed. Roman could have laughed as he watched her realise that it might not have been the most professional response. "I mean, that sounds great. I'd love to do that. Who will I be working with?"

Vince smiled, amused by her initial reaction himself. "Before we get that far, I need to tell you that you'll have to report for promo training at the Performance Center. It's one thing to have natural charisma, but you still need to be taught how we do things."

"Not a problem. I'll give it everything I've got. Learning new skills is something I like," Mandy assured him.

"Good. You'll also need to sign a WWE contract. The temporary arrangement we had before isn't going to cut it for this. I'll have something sent out to you."

"Thank you," Mandy said.

Roman liked what he was hearing a lot. His girl was getting a proper deal with WWE. Vince was actually committing to using her. He felt almost as excited to learn who her client or clients were going to be as she was.

"I can tell you're wanting me to cut to the chase and tell you who you'll be valet for," Vince said with another smile. "You'll be with someone we're going to call up from NXT. Someone who has a lot of in-ring talent, but not much charisma, which is why they need a manager."

"Now you're deliberately making her wait," Roman said with some amusement.

Vince laughed. "Yeah, I suppose I am. Mandy, you're going to be working with Raquel Gonzalez."

Roman looked at Mandy to see her reaction. Her eyes lit up, and she smiled.

"Oh, I love that! She's been so impressive on NXT! She's so big and powerful, she really could dominate the other women. Wait, though. What about Dakota Kai?"

"It looks like she's going to need another knee surgery eventually," Vince explained. "She's working through it for the time being. We'll probably keep them going on NXT until October or November before writing them off. That gives Raquel a couple of months off TV before she makes her main roster debut with you at the Rumble."

"Sounds like a good plan to me," Roman said.

"And it gives me plenty of time to take promo lessons," Mandy said.

Vince nodded. "Exactly. So you're both happy with what we've discussed?"

"Yeah," Roman said.

"Very happy," Mandy agreed. "Have you spoken to Raquel about this yet?"

"Not yet," Vince said. "She can focus on what she's doing for now. She's getting a call up to the main roster, so it's hardly likely that she's going to have a problem."


	25. Chapter 25

The ban on arena shows due to the corona virus had finally been lifted in November. WWE had made a big deal, understandably, about Survivor Series being their first main roster show with a proper live crowd since March.

The first actual WWE show with a crowd had actually happened the night before, with NXT Takeover getting the honour. During that event, Dakota Kai had been kayfabe injured in order to write her off TV for her knee surgery. It would also prove to be the end of Raquel Gonzalez's NXT career, not that the fans knew that at the time.

By the time January came around, life was returning to normal, with the notable exception of people being required to wear face coverings in public. It was something that Mandy was used to by then, since she had been doing it for half a year. Wearing nitrile gloves was an added bonus for her, giving her endless opportunities to enjoy her fetish with the people around her none the wiser.

Ahead of her return to WWE, which would coincide with Roman's, she had been taking promo classes at the Performance Center. The team trained her hard, expecting high standards and quick progress. Luckily for her, she was a quick and willing learner, and had been complimented on her progress. By January, they agreed with her that she ready to go for her manager role, and had reported to Hunter Helmsley and Vince McMahon accordingly.

Roman had been training intensively for his comeback, going so far as to hardly indulge himself over the Christmas period. The festive season had been something of a mixed bag for Mandy emotionally. Spending her first Christmas with Roman had obviously been lovely, but she had only been able to see her dad via a FaceTime call, and she had missed being in New York. Christmas just wasn't the same in Orlando. She had consoled herself with the knowledge that they would soon begin searching for a house in New York, hopefully not too far from where she had grown up.

On this particular day, moving house was the furthest thing from her mind. It was the day of the Royal Rumble, which was emanating from Seattle. Therefore it was also the day of her debut as a manager for Raquel Gonzalez, and it was the day of Roman's return to action, which would see him win the men's rumble match.

"How are you feeling?" Roman asked her when they got out of the SUV that had brought them to the stadium. It had tinted windows so that no one could have seen who was inside, preventing spoilers for the pay-per-view.

"Nervous, but excited," Mandy said. Mainly nervous at the moment, she had to admit to herself. It had been one thing to come to WWE to do a few guest appearances. Now she was a signed up talent with a contract. It was yet to be seen if the rest of the roster would be okay with a total outsider coming into their world. Of particular concern was how Raquel would react to it. It didn't help that they hadn't met, or even spoken to each other.

"Don't worry about it, it'll be fine when we show up for the Rumble," Roman had insisted. She hoped he was right.

"How are you feeling?" she asked him, knowing full well how much he had been looking forward to his big comeback.

"I'm absolutely buzzing," he said with a big smile as they walked into the building.

"Bless you," Mandy said, feeling her heart warmed at seeing him so happy. She wanted to get the stress of her debut over with, then she was sure she would feel the same about her own career.

Before long, they were approaching the men's locker room, having said hello to several people along the way.

"I'm going to go in and see the guys," Roman said. "You'll be okay finding the women's locker room and making yourself at home, right?"

"Yeah," Mandy said, sounding more confident than she felt.

"Okay. Enjoy, Peach. I'll catch up with you later."

"Enjoy your hero's welcome," Mandy smiled.

"I will," Roman laughed. Giving her a kiss on the lips, he turned and walked into the locker room, pulling his travel case along behind him. The door closed, and seconds later she heard the raucous reception her man received from his colleagues. It made her smile, thinking that he totally deserved the enjoyable moment.

"Just let things be okay for me," Mandy said under her breath. Her anxiety was increasing by the minute.

Things went from bad to worse quickly when she followed the direction of a laminated paper sign that pointed female to take a left turn at he next intersection in the hallway. Rounding the corner, she saw Chelsea Green, Rhea Ripley and Raquel Gonzalez standing in a group. It looked like the other two were congratulating Raquel on her main roster call up, which told Mandy that Raquel might only have heard about it recently, maybe even after arriving for the show. In addition, Mandy was now faced with meeting not only the person she was going to work with, but two of her friends at the same time too.

Get a grip, Mandy scolded herself. Approach them with confidence. Act like you belong here. If you act like you think you don't, why should they think you do? They'll never respect you if you act like that.

"You even beat Rhea to a proper call up. She's never going to make it at this point," Chelsea said, and all three wrestlers laughed.

"Oh, here's Mandy now," Rhea said. Of the three, she was the only one facing in her direction.

"Hi! How are you all doing?" Mandy said, putting a brave face on her anxiety.

"Pretty good. We were just wondering who thought it was a good idea to have a poker player managing a wrestler," Chelsea said deadpan.

Mandy felt like her stomach had hit the floor. She wanted to right around and leave.

After a moment, all three wrestlers laughed again, and Rhea slapped Mandy on the shoulder. "It's a rib, girl. You'd better get used to that kind of thing in a wrestler's locker room."

"You'll do best by giving as good as you get," Raquel said, offering a smile that seemed friendly enough. "Come on, I've got you a locker next to mine. Drop your stuff in, then I think we should grab a coffee and have a chat."

"I'd like that," Mandy said, relieved, hoping that it was going to be a get to know you chat, not an I'm not interesting in working with you chat.

Mandy walked with the group into the locker room, where sure enough Raquel had kept an empty space next to her locker. She appreciated the kind gesture. It was a small thing, but the thought behind it said a lot, giving her hope for the working relationship that she wanted to form with her on-screen client.

Once Mandy had unloaded some of her things, she made eye contact with Raquel and indicated that she was ready to go for the drink and the chat that had been mentioned.

"Let's go then," Raquel said.

Walking with the much taller woman, Mandy's couldn't help feeling a bit intimidated. On the other hand, the size of her automatically made her interesting to watch in the ring. The way she could brutalise other smaller women was perfect for a heel. It hardly took a wrestling veteran to figure that out.

"So, Mandy, in the interest of putting my cards on the table from the get go, I have mixed feelings about this whole deal they've given the two of us," Raquel said once they were out of the locker room.

"Okay," Mandy said, indicating with her tone that was willing to listen.

"Obviously I'm happy to get my call up. Not only that, Vince told me himself that he's going to push me, which feels like a pretty huge deal. The thing is, I know how fast plans can change around here. Having a manager takes my fate out of my hands to an extent. It's on you to get me over with your promos as much as it is on me to perform in the ring. You've never done this before. You've never even worked a show properly before. That concerns me a lot."

"I understand that," Mandy said calmly. It was true, she did understand it. They were reasonable concerns to have, so she needed to address them. "You're right, I have no experience working in this business. The best I can tell you in that regard is that I've watched WWE for twenty years, hardly ever missing a show, and I've done a couple of months of promo classes in Orlando, where I got good feedback. I'm not here to have a bit of fun, Raquel, and I'm damn sure not here for the money. I'm here because this is a dream job for me. I'm going to treat it accordingly. I can tell you that I'll give this everything I've got, every week. No one can realistically promise more than that."

The words had come easier and better than Mandy had thought they would. She could tell that they made an impression on Raquel, who seemed to like what she had heard.

"True. No one can promise more than that. And I'll make the same commitment to you, because if I flop that's obviously bad for you too. You know, the first night I worked with Dakota on NXT she said to me, 'We don't know each other yet, but we're a team now. We've got to help each other and have each other's backs, or we'll both in the shit.' She was right. When you're a team, you simply have to be there for each other. So, Mandy, have we got each other's backs?"

Mandy nodded seriously as they neared the catering area. "I've got yours if you've got mine."

Raquel smiled. "Alright then. We're on the same page." She offered a fist bump, which Mandy accepted. It wasn't her usual kind of gesture, but she knew it was going to be a memorable moment for her.

"I suggest we get a coffee, then we can talk over ideas for how I'm going to hype you up."

"Yes. And we need to find out what my part in the rumble match is going to be," Raquel said as they walked into catering.

Good point, Mandy thought. She had been so anxious about meeting Raquel that she hadn't really started thinking about the match yet. Now it was time to start turning her attention in that direction. Whatever was planned for Raquel, her debut was going to be that one opportunity to make a first impression with the portion of the audience who didn't watch NXT.


	26. Chapter 26

Over the years, Mandy figured she had probably watched every Royal Rumble match ever put on by WWE. That level of experience had in no way prepared her for what seemed like to her like the unmitigated chaos that reigned throughout the match in Gorilla.

Fit Finlay, who was in charge of producing the match, as he was with a lot of WWE's women's wrestling, would call out who he wanted to come forward to be the next entrant. Several people had been preassigned a number and given a set role in the match. Raquel Gonzalez was one such individual. Number twenty-seven had been given to her, and it was up next.

By that point, for obvious reasons, there were a lot less people in Gorilla, therefore there was a lot less chaos.

"Mandy, Raquel, you're next up. Thirty seconds," Fit said.

Mandy couldn't even tell how she felt as she stepped forward towards the curtain. Nervous, certainly. Or maybe terrified was more accurate. But at the same time very excited. After winning the World Series of Poker Main Event, which she had incredibly managed to cross of her bucket list, making a debut for WWE was right at the top.

"You good?" Fit asked Raquel.

"Yes, sir," she replied with determination in her voice, and in her eyes. "You good, Mandy?"

Both of them looked at her for an answer.

"Yes, I'm good," Mandy said. In the moment she had found herself falling back on her poker skills for projecting confidence when in fact she felt weak. It was a real lightbulb moment, happening only seconds before she walked out into a packed stadium. She had just found the key to nailing promos. Maybe she had been unconsciously doing it during her promo classes in Orlando, she wondered. Poker was all about telling a story to the other players at the table, attempting to make them believe your hand was either strong or weak, depending on what you wanted them to do. Now she was going to try to convince people that she really was the business manager of the badass bitch standing next to her. Okay, let's sell them a convincing story, she thought.

Out in the stadium, the fans saw the ten second countdown timer appear on the screens. They joined it in counting down to the next entrant.

"Ten!"

"Nine!"

"Eight!"

"Seven!"

"Six!"

"Five!"

Holy shit, here we go, Mandy thought as Fit handed her a microphone.

"Four!"

"Three!"

"Two!"

"One!"

The buzzer sounded loudly.

"Mandy!" the music began. It was actually the same saxophone music that she used for her stream intro. The rights to it had been signed over to WWE in a simple legal agreement which still allowed her to use it for streaming. She imagined that any of her fans who happened to be watching would be freaking out at the surprise.

As she walked through the curtain and up the steps to the start of the entrance ramp, Mandy noticed some cheers, and more than a hint of laughter coming from the crowd. For good reason, some people were having a hard time taking the idea of her entering the match seriously. The fact that she was wearing a revealing red top, black leather pants, and heels probably wasn't helping matters. She hardly looked dressed to wrestle.

"Thank you," Mandy said, stopping about halfway down the ramp. Her music faded out. For now, she didn't want to overtly come across as a heel. Shortly, it would be Raquel's job to get that message across. Doing things that way would make the maximum impact, hopefully. "But it's not me, Mandy Rose, who is entering the Royal Rumble. No, it is my client who is entering. Allow me to introduce you to a woman like no other on this planet, The Game Changer, Raquel Gonzalez!"

The new nickname had been Raquel's idea, and Vince had gone for it. The reaction the announcement got wasn't all that big, unfortunately, but what there was of it had a kind of, 'Oh shit, business is about to pick up' vibe to it. Anyone who had seen Raquel before new that someone of her size was going to do damage when she hit the ring.

Raquel's new theme music dropped. It was a fairly heavy piece of rock music that was unlike anything that any of the other women had. Whether people liked it or not, it would definitely stand out, Mandy thought. That was a good thing.

Wearing a black leather top and matching pants, Raquel walked slowly up the steps and started down the aisle. She intimidated Mandy, even though she was on the same side as her.

Raquel walked past her manager with barely an acknowledgement. Indeed there was almost no emotion on her face at all. The only notable thing about her expression was the laser-like focus she had on the ring, where her prey awaited her.

The ring was quite full. In there were several fan favourites, all thought of as possible victors. Tessa Blanchard was one, a recent signing who was on a real roll on Smackdown since debuting at Survivor Series. Lacey Evans was another, being touted as a Smackdown Women's Champion in the near future. Lastly, there was Sasha Banks, who had turned face by turning on Bayley, albeit failing to win the Smackdown Women's Championship so far in the ensuing rivalry.

Raquel continued her march to the ring, not hurrying herself at all. Mandy feel in step beside her, shouting encouragement to hype her up.

Climbing up onto the apron, Raquel stepped through the ropes. The first person to run at her was Kacy Catanzaro from NXT, who damn near got her head kicked off her shoulders with a big boot as a result.

Liv Morgan made the same mistake, and met the same fate. Within ten seconds, two women lay unconscious on the mat. And Raquel was only just getting started.

Naomi came at Raquel from behind, smashing her in the back with a forearm. She might as well have done it to a brick wall for all the effect it had. Unfazed, Raquel turned around, grabbed Naomi, lifted her high into the air with one arm and powerbombed her to the mat with devastating power, while seeming to use all the effort of someone throwing a ball of paper in the trash.

On the outside of the ring, Mandy cheered enthusiastically, making like what she was seeing was almost as good as sex. There was no telling when the production crew might go for a shot of her, if at all, so she had to be totally in character at all times.

Natalya was next to try and attack Raquel. Within moments, she was heading up into the air, on her way to receiving the second one arm powerbomb of the match. The crowd started getting behind the wrecking spree, reacting to the powerful impact with the mat.

Next came Tessa Blanchard. Breakout star or not, she was dispatched by Raquel with yet another one arm powerbomb.

Liv Morgan had made it back to her feet, using the ropes to help her. Unfortunately for her, it left her in a perfect position for Raquel to give her another big boot, sending her flying over the top rope and out of the ring.

Next, Raquel picked up Natalya and got her in a gorilla press above her head. Walking towards the ropes, Raquel dismissively discarded Natalya out of the ring. So far, it was an utterly dominating display.

The noise from the crowd rose when Raquel set her sights on Charlotte Flair, who was using her foot to choke Chelsea Green in a corner of the ring. Charlotte was the only woman in the ring who was even close to a similar height as Raquel.

Grabbing Charlotte by the shoulder, Raquel spun her around. The fans reacted loudly when she too was picked up one arm, in preparation for a powerbomb.

In the moment, Mandy was struck not only by the incredible sight, but also by the way Charlotte sold it. Helplessly flailing her legs around made her look smaller in the grip of Raquel, making her look even more dominant. The crowd joined in again with the impact when Charlotte's body thundered into the mat. Mandy also put it over for all she was worth.

While Raquel had been dealing with Charlotte, Lacey Evans had taken up a position behind her, ready to strike. As Raquel turned around, Lacey blasted her with a Woman's Right. The finishing move had knocked out everyone Lacey had ever hit with it, until now. Raquel didn't even fully go down. She staggered into the ropes, which held her up and helped her to rebound back to a standing position.

Undeterred, Lacey blasted Raquel with a second Woman's Right, staggering her against the ropes again.

"No! No!" Mandy screamed. Her client was out of it, leaning against the ropes. Lacey completed the job by running at her and clotheslining her over the top rope.

The crowd popped big time. Raquel had been on a tear, but now she was eliminated. She had landed on her feet, staggering over to one of the commentary tables and pounding her fist on it in frustration.

Mandy rushed over to Raquel, a look of anguish and fury on her face. She had to make it look like she had thought her client winning the match had been a given.

In the ring, Lacey was dabbing at her brow with a small white handkerchief, celebrating the elimination.

"Get her!" Mandy screeched, pointing at Lacey Evans.

Moving with a quickness that belied her size, Raquel, seemingly already recovered from the two powerful punches that she had taken to her face, rushed over to the ring.

Before Lacey could react, she was grabbed by the ankles, yanked off her feet and dragged out of the ring under the bottom rope. It didn't constitute elimination, but Raquel intended to do the eliminating herself.

Before the show, it had been Lacey herself who had suggested that she should be put through the commentary table without it being dismantled first. It would be more risky and painful, but it would make the spot look better. Raquel had expressed her gratitude, whereas Mandy had looked at Lacey with admiration. The former marine was a tough cookie, that was for sure.

Not hesitating for a moment to put the agreed upon plan into action, Raquel lifted Lacey up into the air, holding her in position for a moment before powerbombing her onto the table, which obliged by disintegrating.

"That's what you get! That's what you get!" Mandy yelled at the remains of Lacey, which were lying among the wrecked table. Raquel roared like a lioness, signalling her satisfaction with what she had done.

Now the fans were booing, Mandy noticed as a bunch of referees gathered around to make sure Raquel headed to the back without doing anymore damage.

The countdown to the next entrant distracted people's attention at that moment, but it didn't matter, Mandy thought. She had introduced herself and her client, and Raquel had shown how destructive she could be, also making it perfectly clear that she was a heel.

"Job done," Mandy said under her breath.

On the way around the ring towards the entrance ramp, Raquel put a bit of icing on the cake by shoving one of the referees on his ass.

All in all, Mandy couldn't have been happier. But her opinion wasn't what mattered. It was the reaction waiting for them behind the curtain that was going to be crucial.


	27. Chapter 27

Walking through the curtain back into Gorilla, Mandy didn't know what to expect. A standing ovation was overdoing it, but some kind of positive response would be good.

What actually happened could be summed up with two words: not much. Fit Finlay was busy with Ember Moon, who was going to be entrant number twenty-nine. Vince McMahon and his small team were busy producing the show, and said nothing to Raquel or Mandy.

It wasn't until they walked out of Gorilla that they got some feedback. Hunter Helmsley happened to be walking towards them. Needless to say, he had something of a vested interest in Raquel, along with all other NXT graduates.

"Nice job out there, guys," Hunter said, a broad smile appearing on his face. "Raquel, you looked powerful, fearsome, and dominant, exactly how I pictured it. Mandy, nice work."

"Thank you," Mandy said as Raquel hugged her mentor and former boss.

"I'm so pleased you thought it went well," Raquel said to him.

"Didn't you think it went well?" he asked.

"Yes, but your opinion means a lot to me."

"Glad to hear it. You just keep doing what you did in NXT, and what you did out there tonight. You've got a big future ahead of you."

"I will. Thank you," Raquel said emotionally.

"You might want to stop by the doctor's office though. Natalya took a bit of a rough landing on that gorilla press. Looks like she got a sprained ankle or something. It was nothing you did wrong, but put your head around the door and ask if she's okay. You know the deal."

"Sure, I'll do that," Raquel said.

Hunter nodded. On his way past Mandy, he gave her a smile and a little more praise. "Good work. Keep it up tomorrow night."

Mandy acknowledged him with a nod and smile, although she was feeling concerned by what he had said about Natalya. Obviously she knew that wrestling hurt the performers. Sometimes seriously nasty injuries happened - she had witnessed many happen on live TV over the years. What she didn't know what how the wrestlers reacted to each other in the back when something like that happened. It was something that Roman had never talked about. Hunter hadn't seemed too concerned about it, she reasoned. But then he wasn't the one in the doctor's room with a banged up ankle.

"Is this bad for us?" she asked Raquel uncertainly.

"Us? You didn't hurt anyone," Raquel replied, half raising an eyebrow.

"We're a team now, right? If you're going to get shit for something, I'll be there beside you. I'd expect you to do the same because, like you said, we've got to have each other's backs come what may."

"You're right," Raquel said. She looked a little impressed, and maybe a little grateful for what she had just heard. That meant a lot to Mandy. "I'm sure it'll be fine anyway. It's not exactly rare to catch someone a bit stiff or to drop them a bit awkwardly. It's considered polite to apologise to them and ask if they're okay, even if it was an accident on your part."

"Makes sense. Shall we go?" Mandy said.

"So, what did you think of how I looked out there?" Raquel asked as they resumed walking along the hallway.

"My opinion matters to you?" Mandy asked, somewhat surprised, in a good way.

"You said you've watched wrestling for twenty years. I assume that means that although you don't get in the ring and wrestle, you can tell whether someone looks good or if they're the shits."

"You looked great," Mandy said honestly. "You were ripping through those girls. It looked like you could have thrown them all out one by one if you wanted to, until Lacey's part came up. If I had been watching as a fan at home, I'd have been impressed with what I saw."

"That's good to hear," Raquel said with a smile.

Mandy found the exchange interesting. After having received praise from Triple H, there was no need for Raquel to require any further validation of her performance, certainly from Mandy. It told her that her new friend didn't feel as confident inside as she tried to project outwardly. Given her concerns before arriving at the stadium, and before going out to perform, Mandy could definitely relate to that. She hoped they could help each other to become confident in time.

"What about me? How do you think I did?" Mandy asked.

"Very well," Raquel said without needing to consider it. "They didn't give you much to say, but what you did say was delivered with passion, with conviction. And you were good after I put Lacey through the table, yelling at her that it's what she gets. It made it look like I'm your one woman wrecking crew, ready to be set on whoever you see fit."

"I like that," Mandy said, smiling.

"Me too. We need to try and make sure they continue in that direction for us tomorrow night, if that's not what they intend already."

They reached the doctor's room, finding the door closed. Raquel knocked on it, opened it and walked in. Mandy followed her.

"Natalya, Hunter said you took a rough landing and hurt your ankle," Raquel said. "I'm sorry if I dropped you a bit hard. How bad is it?"

Natalya was lying on an examination table, her right foot raised up, in the process of being iced by the doctor. She looked pissed off. When she spoke, she sounded it too. "Sorry if you dropped me a bit hard? Seriously? You launched me so far out of the ring that I missed the floor mat and landed on the aisle, on the concrete. How can you be so clumsy?"

"Sorry, I didn't realise I threw you that far. I didn't mean to," Raquel said humbly.

"Well, it's not an ankle injury. The doc was just saying he thinks it's a broken heel."

"That would be my guess," the doctor confirmed. "It'll need an x-ray tomorrow after the swelling goes down."

"RIP me for a few months," Natalya said sarcastically. "Thanks, Raquel. As luck would have it, I was hoping to miss Wrestlemania."

Mandy was getting annoyed by the supposed veteran's tone. It was obvious to anyone that the injury was the result of nothing more than an unfortunate accident. "Look, she didn't hurt you on purpose. It was an accident," she said defensively.

"What the fuck would you know about it?" Natalya snarled, turning on Mandy.

Her reaction triggered Raquel, who fired right back at her. "Don't talk to her like that! If you want to be mad at me, that's one thing. I'm not going to stand here while you speak to her like shit."

"I think you should just get out," Natalya said heatedly.

"Yes, go, please," the doctor said in a non-confrontational tone. Mandy figured he wanted to get on with his work in peace. Personally, she was happy to leave. To her, Natalya's behaviour was unprofessional. If Raquel had hurt her on purpose she might have been justified, but that quite plainly was not the case.

Thinking better of saying anything else, Raquel left the room. Mandy follower her out and closed the door quietly out of respect to the doctor. It certainly wasn't his fault that the heated exchange had taken place in his room.

"Thanks for having my back in there," Raquel said as the started walking towards the locker room.

"I was about to say that to you," Mandy said. "I don't know why she was like that with either of us. It's obvious you didn't mean to hurt her. I mean, why would you? And you apologised."

"Yeah, exactly. I get being pissed off about getting a potentially serious injury, but the way she spoke to you? There was no excuse for that. Fuck her. If she thinks she's going to act like that and I'm going to shut up and take it because I'm new here she's got another thing coming. Hunter didn't criticise the gorilla press, so that's good enough for me. I think I'll tell the locker room what has happened and get ahead of it. She was in the wrong, but I don't want me, or you for that matter, getting a bad rep if they hear her version first."

"Good idea. I'm glad I was there so that I can back you up if I need to, although I'll only be telling the truth," Mandy said.

"Shall we do it straight away, do you think?"

Mandy shook her head. "No. The rumble match is still going on, and everyone will be watching it. They're not going to want us talking over it. I know it would get on my nerves if I were them."

Raquel gave a sideways smile. "Apparently you're the brains of this operation."

Mandy decided she could risk a pretty strong joke in response. "Yes, you just stand behind me and look fierce. I'll do the thinking and the talking."

Raquel laughed, which made Mandy happy. "Careful, girl. You've got a very pretty face that I could mess up very quickly."

"Noted," Mandy said, giggling.

They had made it back to the women's locker room. Raquel pushed the door open and led the way inside. Some vague words of praise came her way, but everyone's attention was on the TV on the wall, which was showing rumble match. Mandy went with Raquel over to their lockers and sat down to watch it.

It suddenly dawned on Mandy that she didn't know who was going to win. It felt pretty remarkable and exciting to be in the dark even as a WWE employee. Having the chance to continue enjoying the action as a fan was nice.

In the end it was the returning Ronda Rousey who won the match, having entered at number thirty. She too was returning with a heel turn, Mandy saw as she watched the finish and the ensuing reaction to it. Whether booking the same idea for her and for Roman later in the night was a good idea, Mandy wasn't quite sure. But booking was not her job, managing Raquel was.

When the pay-per-view went to a WWE commercial, Mandy looked at her new friend and got a nod in response. It was time to speak up about the Natalya incident.

"Guys, before the next match gets going, can I just say something?" Raquel said, drawing everyone's attention.

Charlotte Flair walked in at that moment, noting right away that something was up. "What's going on?" she asked.

"I was just going to tell everyone that I had a bit of an exchange of words with Natalya," Raquel said. "She took a rough landing when I gorilla pressed her out of the ring. The doctor says it might be a broken heel. I apologised to Natalya, but she got aggressive with me and with Mandy. I reacted to it and got aggressive back, which I admit I shouldn't have done. I just wanted you all to know what happened because the last thing I had in mind for my first night on the main roster was to be involved with something like this. I'm not a confrontational person."

"I don't know what's wrong with Nattie lately," Bayley said from across the room. "She's been snapping at everyone for weeks now. I wouldn't worry about it."

"Agreed," Charlotte said. "I didn't see anything wrong with what you did. It was a gorilla press out of the ring. It's a dangerous spot. Don't worry about it. I wouldn't have done anything differently to how you did it."

Muttered words of agreement came from several people around the room. They were like music to Mandy's ears. As quickly and surprisingly as it had started, the drama had been dismissed by her colleagues. Onwards and upwards, she thought hopefully.


	28. Chapter 28

Boos filled the stadium as Roman hurled Daniel Bryan over the top rope to win the Royal Rumble. It was a bizarre moment for Mandy as she watched from Gorilla. She was delighted for her man that he was back on top of the mountain in WWE. The boos were also a good thing, since he was now supposed to be a heel. But on the other hand it hurt her on a base level to hear people shitting on her man. That was something she was going to have to get used to, she realised.

"He looks great. He was a big loss while he was away."

The voice belonged to Hunter Helmsley, who had appeared next to Mandy. She looked at him and smiled. "He's trained so hard for this. I can't tell you how much it means to him to be back." All of a sudden, she found herself tearing up. In embarrassment, she turned away from Hunter, trying to hide her reaction, as if that was going to work.

Hunter put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "He's always been one of the most passionate about the business, and he's a natural leader. That's why we want him back, and at the top. He thinks the world of you, you know that?"

"What makes you say that?" she asked tearfully.

"I went to talk to check in with him before the show, to ask how was and to talk about the match. All he talked about was you, saying how he wouldn't have made it through the past six months or whatever it has been without you. He also had a lot to say about your future in WWE, telling me how much it means to you to get this opportunity and that you'll do great things here."

"He said that?" Mandy asked, wiping her eyes.

"He did. And I believe him."

"I'm going to give it everything I've got, I can promise you that."

"Keep that attitude and you'll do fine," Hunter told her.

At that moment, Bryan came back through the curtain and Hunter went over to speak to him, leaving Mandy by herself to watch Roman celebrating his victory in the ring. He stood on the middle turnbuckle in a corner of the ring, raising his fists above his head. Pyro started going off around the stadium to mark his triumphant return. Mandy knew it was a moment she would remember for a long time.

Eventually, Roman walked through the curtain. There was a cameraman there to record the moment, not that Mandy cared. Nothing could have stopped her rushing over to him, into his arms. He wasn't a guy who displayed much emotion outwardly, but she was obviously able to pick up on the subtleties. She knew that inside he was feeling quite emotional himself.

"Wow, that felt good," he said as they embraced.

"I'm so proud of you. So happy for you," Mandy said. She was holding him tightly, not caring in the least that his sweat got onto her dress.

"Thank you, Peach. I don't know if I would be here now if it wasn't for you," he said quietly, speaking for her ears only. "I couldn't have done that time in lockdown alone, but spending it with you, it was easy. Your love and support mean so much to me. I love you."

Mandy looked up at him, tears stinging her eyes again. His words made her happier than she could have imagined being possible. What they had was true love, which was something she had never thought she would have in her life.

"I love you too, Joe. I'd better let you talk to everyone else who wants to congratulate you."

Roman pecked her on the lips, then released the embrace. Mandy stood back to watch Vince speak to him next.

The two men hugged, seeming to forget about social distancing. Vince passed on his congratulations and praised Roman's performance.

Hunter stepped forward next, offering praise and a handshake, which Roman gratefully accepted.

There was then a hug between Roman and Bryan. "We're all glad you're back, big man," Bryan said.

"I'm glad to be back. I missed this, missed all of you."

After the hug broke up, Mandy realised it was time to leave Gorilla. She joined Roman and they walked out together.

"I was in tears when you won," she said to him.

"I can see that in your eyes," he smiled. "I wasn't far away from it myself when I watched you walk out there earlier. I know how much it meant to you."

"Honestly, I was too busy shitting myself to enjoy it too much. I think I'll enjoy it more Friday night, now that my debut is behind me."

"I think you're probably right. And the good thing right now is it's TV events only, no house shows. House shows are fun, but I prefer not having to travel that much, and having time to do more things we might want to do, like house hunting."

Mandy was surprised and delighted that he brought that up. "You want to start the house hunt?"

Roman looked at her and smiled. "Yeah. Life is getting back to normal, right? There's no point waiting any longer. Let's hope there's somewhere nice near the sandwich shop."

"Yes, because we'll be working Fridays for WWE, and the rest of the week in the shop."

The funniest thing about it was that she could tell by his reaction that he didn't know if she was joking or not. The truth was somewhere in between. She fully intended to work in the shop to help her dad at least a couple of days per week. After all, it was the family business. One day, it would be her business. The immediate concern would be getting it back on its feet when it reopened. There was no telling how many of the regular customers, or customers in general, would be around. The whole world had changed thanks to the virus.

"I'm happy to help out whenever I can," Roman said. "But as far as tonight is concerned, you know what I'm thinking about? Hitting the showers, getting back to the hotel, ordering some room service, and..."

"I think I know the rest," Mandy said, very much liking the sound of the plan. "Message me as soon as you're ready and we'll get out of here."

* * *

Half an hour later, they were walking into the lobby of their hotel, pulling their travel cases along behind them.

During the drive from the stadium, Mandy had told Roman about the altercation with Natalya. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he had taken the side of her and Raquel, saying that Natalya was out of line. He had pointed out that Raquel should have kept her cool, and Mandy had told him that Raquel had admitted that herself when they had gotten back to the locker room.

There were a few fans hanging around in the lobby, she saw as they walked in. It was nothing too serious, just some people who were staying there and had figured out that some of the wrestlers were too. Here goes, they're going to flock around Roman, she thought. Given the virus, it wasn't the best situation for him to be in.

"I'll get a few pictures, then we'll quickly get up to the room," Roman said as people started coming over.

"Okay. Just be careful," Mandy told him. Watching him go over to the group of fans, she wished she had a mask and some gloves on. The situation felt risky, and she wanted to get out of there.

"Mandy? Any chance I could get a picture, please?"

Mandy felt like she must have misheard as she turned to look at a young asian woman who was holding a phone at the ready.

"Sorry, what?" she asked.

"Do you mind if we get a picture together?"

Holy shit, I have a fan through WWE, Mandy realised. It was a bizarre feeling, and it left her thinking that she couldn't really say no. It would seem rude, and she didn't have it in her to act like that.

"Yeah, sure we can. But we need to keep a bit of distance between us, so have someone take it for you."

The fan had luck on her side. A member of the hotel's staff happened to pass by, and she was able to ask him to take the picture for her. When he agreed, she walked over to Mandy and stood beside her, about a metre away.

"Okay, ready," the male staff member said.

Mandy made sure to put on one of her best smiles for what was basically her first ever meet and greet. Yes, she had met people from her stream chat before, and had said hello to people who had recognised her in Las Vegas shortly after her World Series of Poker win. But this was different. This was a WWE fan seeking her out because she worked there.

"Thanks, Mandy. I can't wait to see you and Raquel run through Smackdown."

"You're welcome. We'll do our best," Mandy said, sending the fan on her way with another smile.

Roman had dealt with the other fans by taking a couple of group photos – all the better to get out of there quickly. To their credit the fans were not pushy about it, and shortly he and Mandy were in an elevator, heading up to their floor.

"I actually had a fan come up to me," Mandy said proudly. "It was a weird feeling."

"And so it begins," Roman said. He sounded happy, but also tired, suddenly.

"Are you okay?" Mandy asked with some concern.

"Tired," he admitted. "Physically and emotionally, it's been a long day."

"Aww, baby," Mandy said, squeezing his hand. "You went through almost the whole rumble match from number five, so I'm not surprised you're beat. We'll have some room service, then you can let your Peach take care of you."

"That sounds like a plan," Roman said as the elevator doors opened on their floor.

Their room wasn't far from the elevators, and they were soon inside. After taking her case around to her side of the bed, Mandy went over to the full length window to close the curtains. The view across the city's night time skyline struck her as especially beautiful.

"Roman, look at this," she said.

"Lovely, isn't it?" he said, stepping up beside her and putting and arm around her waist. "2020 was a weird, rough year. This year is going to be better. It's going to be our year. There's a whole world out there, Peach. We're going to make it ours this year."

"Roman?" she said softly.

"Yeah?"

"That was the corniest shit I've ever heard in my life."

"Wasn't it?" he said, and they both burst out laughing.


	29. Chapter 29

Mandy was in a hire car with Roman, on the way to the arena for Friday night's Smackdown episode when her phone rang. The word 'Dad' appeared on the screen.

"Oh, it's my dad," she said happily. She always enjoyed speaking to him, especially when it had been a few days since the last time.

"Say hi from me," Roman said before she answered the call.

Mandy slid the green phone icon across the screen. "Hi, dad!"

"Hey, Amanda," he said. He was the only one who called her Amanda. If anyone else did it, she corrected them. But her dad had always done it, and she had come to see it as endearing.

"How are you? Is everything okay?" she asked him.

She heard a sigh on the other end of the call, which worried her. "There's actually something I need to talk to you about. There's something going on, and I'm not sure how you're going to feel about it."

"Oh?" Mandy asked, feeling extremely nervous about what might be coming next.

"You see, the thing is," her dad said slowly, "I'm opening the shop back up."

Mandy squealed in delight, realising that he had been teasing her by making out it was going to be something bad that he had to say, when it was actually the total opposite. "You got me going then, dad! Don't do that to me! When? When are you opening it?" she asked, speaking over the laughter coming from his end.

"Sorry! I just had to do it," he said. "I've got people coming to do some work on it at the start of next week. They'll be putting a plastic screen around the counter, plus a few other things for health and safety. I'm also going to have a new policy for payments – card only, no cash."

"I think that's a good idea. Dad, I'm so happy you're opening again! When are you heading back home?"

"Today. I'm packed and ready to go. I'm sick of the sight of this cabin, so I'll be glad to get home now that it's safer. I'd love it if you could come up soon?"

Mandy decided that turnabout was fair play. She could wind him up a little, as he had with her. "The thing is, dad, I've got a busy week next week. Like, real busy."

"Too busy to come see me?" he asked with obvious disappointment.

"Quite possibly. You see, we'll be house hunting. In New York," she added casually. She had kept the plans that she and Roman had made from her dad, waiting until the right time to surprise him. That moment had just presented itself.

"Wait, what?" he exclaimed. "You're moving to New York? You're serious?"

"I'm serious," Mandy assured him, enjoying his reaction. She noticed Roman smiling next to her. "Roman and I talked about it a while back and I explained to him that I couldn't be away from New York, from you, from the shop, when things went back to normal. We're going to find somewhere that's not a huge distance from the shop."

"And is Roman okay with moving up here?" he asked.

"Yes, he is," Mandy assured him. "He says hi, by the way."

"Tell him hi. You guys will stop by next week then, since you'll be in the area?"

"Of course we will," Mandy promised now that she was done teasing him.

"I can't wait to see you both. I can tell you're in the car, so I'll let you go."

"Thanks, dad. I can't wait to see you either. We're nearly at the arena, so I'll probably speak to you tomorrow or something."

"Okay. Good luck on the show. I'll be watching. Love you," he said.

"Love you too," Mandy said, and ended the call.

"I bet he liked that surprise?" Roman said, smiling again.

"Yeah," Mandy said, feeling quite emotional about the prospect of seeing her dad in person for the first time in months, and getting back to working in the shop. "I know I've said it before, but it means so much to me that you're willing to move up to New York. I just couldn't have been happy moving away permanently."

"I know, Peach. I'm looking forward to viewing some of the places we shortlisted. At least we agreed on the basics of what we wanted."

"Yeah, and we found some lovely places with our internet search. I'm still not used to being a millionaire. The thought of houses like those belonging to me just seems crazy, and exciting of course."

"Well, as you know, until we moved in together I had only ever lived alone since I moved out of my parents' place. I've never bought a house with someone, so I'm looking forward to it as much as you are, albeit for slightly different reasons."

When they arrived at the arena about fifteen minutes later, Mandy couldn't have felt happier. There was so much positive in her life at the moment, and very little negative. Even her nerves about performing were not as bad as they had been at the Royal Rumble, plus she now knew that she got along okay with Raquel Gonzalez.

"Okay, Peach, I'll see you later. Enjoy," Roman said when the time came for them to part ways, this time at a junction in the hallway. Female talent were directed one way, male talent the other.

"You call me Peach more than Mandy now, you know that?"

"You are my Peach," Roman shrugged, smiling with good humour.

"I am," Mandy giggled. "I'll talk to you later, Joe."

They pecked each other on the lips, then went their separate ways to the locker rooms. Although they had arrived quite early, Mandy found the locker room busy when she walked in. Raquel was one of the people who was there. She had made sure there was an empty locker next to hers for Mandy.

"Hey, how are you?" Mandy asked as she approached her new friend.

"Oh, hi," Raquel said looking up from her phone. She didn't seem particularly happy.

"You okay?" Mandy asked. Setting her travel case aside, she sat down on the bench next to Raquel.

"Look at this," Raquel said, offering her phone to Mandy.

Unsure what she was about to see, Mandy took the phone without saying anything. On the screen was a tweet from a dirt sheet account. It linked an article and offered the headline: 'Natalya: Reckless Raquel has put me out for four months.'

Mandy could hardly believe what she was seeing. Natalya had actually been unprofessional enough to give an interview and criticise Raquel's work, out of bitterness over an injury that no one apart from Natalya even thought was Raquel's fault anyway.

"Reckless Raquel? Seriously?" Mandy asked in a very mocking manner. "She needs to get a hold of herself."

"She wants to hope I don't get a hold of her," Raquel said quietly, with anger in her voice. "It would be one thing if I actually did anything. I've watched it back a bunch of times, and what everyone said was right. All I did was gorilla press her out of the ring. Now I've got an interview going around twitter saying I'm a bad worker before I've even had a match on the main roster. It's bullshit, Mandy."

"It is bullshit. That's exactly what it is," Mandy said, putting a sympathetic hand on her friend's knee. She was glad that although they were in the busy locker room, no one was paying any attention to their conversation. "You know what you're going to do, don't you?"

"What's that?" Raquel asked.

"You're going to prove the bitch wrong. And you're going to show her for what she is: a bitter, run down wrestler who is no longer relevant. That's what you're going to do."

"You've got some fire in you, Mandy," Raquel said, her tone conveying that she respected it.

"Sometimes you have to stand up and fight when things get on top of you. I've been through a lot in my life, like most people have, I suppose. At times it would have been easy for me to give up and go into a depression, but no, I always kept going because I knew I had to be there for my dad, and for our family business. In your case, don't let one person talking shit detract from the fact that you were called up to the main roster for a reason. You belong here, so act like it and show them why. Okay?"

"Okay," Raquel said with renewed determination. "Thanks, Mandy. I know I said we need to have each other's backs. You've made it clear you have mine."

"I definitely do. You showed you had mine when Natalya spoke to me like a piece of crap last week, so I'm confident we're on the same page."

"We are," Raquel agreed as she took her phone back. Shaking her head again, she re-read the article's headline. Noticing it, Mandy knew what she should say next.

"Try and keep your mind off her."

"You're right. I need something else to talk about," Raquel said. "What's the family business you mentioned?"

"We have a sandwich shop up in Westchester County. I'm not exaggerating when I say it's probably the best sandwich shop in the area. Our food is to die for. I'm very proud of that. It's actually opening back up next week, after being closed since March because of the stupid virus."

"That's a long time for a business to be closed for. A lot of places have been open for a while now."

"Yeah, I know. My dad went to live in a cabin he owns out in the country to ride out the worst of corona, and I've been living in Orlando with Roman. We're lucky that my dad owns the shop outright, so the closure hasn't ruined us financially. It might take us a while to get the customers back, but we'll do it. I'm going to be helping out there whenever I can."

"You might have a decision coming your way somewhere down the line," Raquel said.

"What do you mean?" Mandy asked.

"WWE is a full time job once house shows come back, assuming they do. You won't be able to do poker streams, run a sandwich shop, and work here. I can't believe Vince didn't have this conversation with you."

"He did," Mandy revealed, smiling. "He signed me up for TV shows only, so it's not going to be an issue."

"TV only? How did you swing that deal?"

"It helps when you don't need the money. I'm probably among the lowest paid people here, but I don't care. As we already discussed, this is my dream job. I'm here because I want to do it."

"You might end up being away from Roman a lot. His ass won't be TV only," Raquel said, amused by the thought of Vince letting one of the company's top stars skip house shows.

"I know. And that will obviously be hard. But we're going to be moving up to live near my dad. I'll be working, and I'll be spending time with him. Loneliness won't be an issue for me."

"I'm glad you've got it all worked out," Raquel said supportively.

"What about you? What's your personal life like?"

Raquel laughed. "What personal life? I live in a small apartment a few minutes from the PC. When I'm not working shows, I'm there training."

"You need to change that. Focus and determination are great, but so is relaxation. You should come over for dinner with Roman and I one night. You haven't eaten until you've tried Mandy Rose's cooking!"

Raquel grinned at the boast. "Oh, really? That's an offer I can't refuse. I'd love to come over for dinner. There is one thing I've got to ask you though."

"What's that?" Mandy asked a little tentatively.

"Why do you wear gloves all the time? You're not even wearing a mask. I've been wanting to ask that since you walked in."

Mandy looked at her hands, to her looking sexy in blue nitrile gloves, but to everyone else looking pretty silly, she had to admit. "It makes me comfortable," she half lied. At least she hadn't blushed at the question.

"Fair enough. Just so you know, we're not making it part of our gimmick."

"That's a shame," Mandy said, and they laughed like people who had been friends for five months, not five days.


	30. Chapter 30

Seeing two people in Gorilla who looked more nervous than her helped to put Mandy at ease ahead of her first Smackdown appearance as Raquel's manager. The two women in question were what were described in the business as enhancement talent. They both looked like they were about to shit themselves. It was a feeling that Mandy remembered well from five days earlier.

"Okay, out you go," Fit Finlay said to the two enhancement talents when Smackdown went to commercial. By the time the break ended, they would be in the ring. "Try to relax a bit and enjoy it," was his parting advice.

"Bless their hearts," Lacey Evans said once they were gone.

Mandy smiled to herself in amusement at how much like her character Lacey sounded sometimes. But then she knew that the best characters were extensions of the personality of the individual portraying them, or so she had heard somewhere.

"I think we all remember feeling like that," Alexa Bliss said. She was ready to make an entrance with Nikki Cross, her tag team partner.

"I still do feel like it," Mandy said as a joke, although there was some truth to it. It drew a ripple laughter from the other women, and from Finlay, making her feel accepted as a part of the group. Confidence in that regard was something she still needed to build up.

When Smackdown came back from the break, Alexa's music played. She and Nikki began their entrance routine for their tag team match against the two enhancement talents.

"Right then, let's see who I can be accused of injuring this time," Raquel said quietly to Mandy.

"Sshhh, don't say that," Mandy muttered back. Although it had been a joke, she didn't think it was a good idea for Raquel to have the Natalya nonsense on her mind when they went out to perform.

"Here you go, get ready," Fit said, handing a microphone to Mandy.

Moments later, as Alexa and Nikki readied themselves to start the match, Mandy's voice interrupted.

"Mandy!" came through the speakers, and the saxophone music began. Behind the curtain, she heard some groans and boos from the crowd. It was hardly anything to write home about, but it was certainly better than being met with silence.

Walking out into the arena, hopefully looking glamorous and arrogant, since that what how her character was supposed to be, she went over to the top of the entrance ramp. When she got there her music faded out and Raquel's heavy rock theme replaced it, drawing more boos.

In the ring, all four women were standing there looking up at the stage, looking like they knew that nothing good was coming their way as Raquel walked out onto the stage with a menacing expression on her face.

Mandy nodded slowly as Raquel walked over to her, as if to say, 'That's right, this bad bitch it here, and she's going to cause some serious destruction when we come down there.'

Together, Mandy and Raquel walked down to the ring. When they got there, Mandy walked quickly up the steps so that she entered the ring at the same time as Raquel, who entered by climbing onto the apron and stepping through the ropes.

"Bitches, leave," Mandy said to the four other women in the ring. She spoke as if she expected the demand to be carried out without objection. Predictably, it didn't go like that.

One of the enhancement talents, who happened to be standing closest to Raquel, looked at Alexa and held out her hands in a gesture that said, 'Are we supposed to be wrestling you or not?'

Raquel settled the issue for her by grabbing hold of her, hoisting her up into the air and slamming her to the mat with a one arm powerbomb, delivering it with real force. The crowd gave a pleasing reaction to the impact, Mandy noticed.

The destroyed woman's partner ran at Raquel, only to almost have her head kicked off her shoulders with a big boot.

Never the sanest of individuals, Nikki Cross also decided that rushing Raquel was a good idea. She soon found herself being hoisted into the air. Raquel held her there for a moment before sending her thundering to the mat.

I really wouldn't want to take one of those powerbombs, Mandy thought as she watched Nikki hit the canvas. There was no way it couldn't hurt. In character, she looked like she was enjoying the destruction.

Finished with Cross, Raquel looked at Alexa Bliss, now the only one left standing. Alexa had gotten a long way in her career by being cunning. Picking a fight with a woman a foot taller than her was clearly not a cunning plan. She held up her hands and put an 'Okay, I'll just leave then' expression on her face. Seeing it on the big screen, some of the fans laughed. Mandy didn't see that as a bad thing. A little bit of amusement in a segment was something she liked as a fan.

"That's a smart move," Mandy said, scowling at Alexa as she left the ring. "Speaking of smart moves, this past Sunday at the Royal Rumble, there was someone who did something that definitely wasn't a smart move. You see, this right here is The Game Changer, Raquel Gonzalez. She is a force the like of which has never been seen before, as she showed just now, and as she showed at the Royal Rumble. Raquel decimated everyone in that match, until a certain piece of trailer park trash by the name of Lacey Evans got a couple of lucky shots in. I don't think Lacey felt lucky for long. Why don't we check out what happened next? Roll the footage," she ordered the production crew.

While the recap package played, showing Lacey being put through the announce table during the rumble match, Mandy had a moment to reflect on the first part of the promo. She had delivered her lines well, she thought, and had heard some boos. The cameraman in front of her had alternated between showing her talking, and showing Raquel looking menacing.

When the video package ended, boos filled the arena. It seemed to Mandy that the attack had gotten Lacey further over as a babyface. That reflected well on Raquel, since a heel's job was to get the face they worked with over.

"Lacey, that was only the start. Eliminating Raquel Gonzalez from the Royal Rumble was the biggest mistake of your life. We're not done with you yet, not by a long shot," Mandy said threateningly. "So, what you're going to do right now is get your ass out here, before I send Raquel back there to find you. Believe me, that's not how you want..."

She was interrupted by the intro to Lacey's music, and a loud ovation from the fans. They were not going to be made to wait for Evans to answer the challenge.

When Lacey walked out onto the stage, she was all business. The usual theatrics were nowhere to be seen. "You want to call me out, you two nasties?" she said aggressively. "Well, here I am. Raquel, sweetheart, I would have thought the first two times I hit you with a woman's right might have knocked some since into, but I guess that nasty thing next to you does the thinking for you. That's fine, because after causing me to be eliminated from the Royal Rumble, I don't need to think at all, I just need you to fight."

With that, Lacey started marching down the ramp, being cheered on by the fans. It was clear that she intended the fight to go down right then and there.

When Lacey reached the ring, Mandy took charge of the situation, motioning Raquel to leave the ring on the opposite side. "No, no, no, Lacey," she said as they made their swift exit. As expected, the perceived act of cowardice was booed by the crowd.

"You'll get your fight, on our terms," Mandy said from outside the ring. "You'll get it at the next pay-per-view, Elimination Chamber, if you've got the guts?"

As Raquel and Mandy retreated into the crowd near the timekeeper's area, Lacey walked over to the closest corner of the ring and demanded a microphone from the ring announcer.

"If I've got the guts?" Lacey said mockingly once she had the microphone. "I'm not the one running away, sweetheart. Any time you or that thing next to you want a fight, I'm not hard to find."

"We'll remember that!" Mandy shouted, having dropped her microphone at ringside. "Famous last words, Lacey! We'll remember that!"

Lacey's music began playing, bringing an end to the segment. Mandy walked with Raquel out of a nearby exit. Aware of what the segment was going to entail, there were security guys waiting to escort them back to the backstage areas through a nearby doorway.

Out in the concourse, fans had been forced to disperse from the area for the time being. Having figured out that it meant at least one performer would be coming, a fair number had hung around to see who it was. Mandy heard a few people calling her name, but she was mindful of staying in character while she was in the arena, so she ignored them.

Within moments they had been ushered through a doorway that was being manned by a security guard. He closed to door behind them, shutting the fans out of the backstage area.

"Great job, Mandy," Raquel said. "I can see why they wanted you to be a manager. You're excellent on the microphone. I was never good at it."

"Thank you," Mandy said happily. "I was still nervous, so the feedback means a lot. I have a feeling that next week you'll be the focus of attention, not me."

Raquel rubbed her hands together, pretending to still be in character. "Bring it on!"


End file.
